How to De-Thatch a Lawn | This Old House

in the lawn underneath here is what's called a thatch layer we'll take a look at it in profile okay i'm gonna knock most of the dirt off it now you look right here between my thumbs that's thatch that's not soil okay that's a buildup of dead grass leaves roots anything organic that lands on the lawn breaks down and sits right there when that gets thick enough it blocks the nutrients water and air from getting down to the roots so slowly over time your lawn can actually suffocate so while you think you're doing a good job with that rake you're not doing as much as you could for a lawn and that's where something like this comes in here this is a thatch rig when you look at it this set of blades has a little bend on it now that's for cultivating soil in a garden loosening it up this edge here nice straight edges this is thatch blades these are meant to pull that thatch out of the lawn and it's even adjustable so you can be as aggressive as you want with it so we're gonna set it in the middle and i'm gonna have you go to work with this one and see how you like that oh yeah that's getting way down in there all right now let's take a look at that you see what you're pulling out see all the thatch that you're bringing out and how much you're opening the lawn up oh what a difference you keep that up and in two weeks you'll have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood how would you like me to make it easier for you take a look at this okay we've got a five horsepower engine which is driving 28 steel teeth underneath here they're spinning around and doing all the work you were doing with the rake only a thousand times faster it also has a depth adjustment that goes up and down the lower it is the more aggressive the more it rips out the higher it is the less it takes you don't even realize what's happening here you're not only pulling out debris but you're pulling out all that thatch layer you are opening this grass up and that's just a great thing this grass is going to be able to get water and nutrients and green up in no time can't wait now the important thing is don't leave any spaces i want you to overlap by a couple of inches that way we'll get the whole job done efficiently now with the lawn opened up it's a perfect time to seed an area like this it looks like you have weeds in there and it's really weak we're going to take and put down a grass seed blend and that's a mixture of bluegrass a lot of fescue in rye which is perfect for this sunny location so if you spread that out i'm just going to follow behind you and give it a quick rake in now this is also the perfect time of year to get some fertilizer on the lawn and because this is such a sunny location i know you're going to have crabgrass so i have a fertilizer combined with pre-emergent crab grass control and that's not going to affect the new seed we just put down some crabgrass preventers wood this one was selected purposely so that it would not affect the new grass seedlings now the barriers we seeded i want you to keep them damp if it doesn't rain in three days i want you to water the entire lawn and get that nitrogen and crabgrass prevented down into the lawn you

Channel: This Old House

Views: 1,019,256

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, Dethatcher, Lawn, Do It Yourself (Hobby), yard, Landscaping (Industry), Gardening (Interest), Garden (Industry) (TV Program), Home Repair (Interest), Renovation (TV Subject)(Interest), DIY (Website Category), roger cook

Id: _4byQHwCMJc

Length: 3min 48sec (228 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2015