Yard freaks

[UncleWede]

Dig the whole ring/island out. Put any one of the many weed barriers over the top. Put back the border and edge, then enjoy until next year

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

Dig the whole ring/island out. Put any one of the many weed barriers over the top. Put back the border and edge, then enjoy until next year

Even with trees inside? I’d love to do that, but I’m afraid of what it would do to the trees.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Even with trees inside? I’d love to do that, but I’m afraid of what it would do to the trees.

Dig all the covering and weeds, but just an inch or two deep, so you can lay the liner on a flat. All my trees have rocks inside the scalloped borders, that's almost digging I put liner, then a layer of bark to hold some moisture for the tree, then top with stream rocks to keep down the weeds. Those that do come thru the top are pretty easy to pull

[lsturbointeg]

Nice day today so I had to start edging just so that next time edging gets easier and easier

[earlgrey69]

I am no lawn expert but i have never heard of dethatching a St Augustine lawn. I agree with Rick on the bald spots, best solution is to drop some more sod in. It looks like you have a lot of shade in your front lawn. There are certain varieties of St Augustine that do better in shade. If its not correct those areas will continue to thin out and you will start to get weeds.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by earlgrey69

I am no lawn expert but i have never heard of dethatching a St Augustine lawn. I agree with Rick on the bald spots, best solution is to drop some more sod in. It looks like you have a lot of shade in your front lawn. There are certain varieties of St Augustine that do better in shade. If its not correct those areas will continue to thin out and you will start to get weeds.

i've never seen Allyn Hayne "The lawncare nut" ever dethatch his lawn. i've seen him do it on other's people's lawn but not on his own and i believe he has St Augustine.

[bigrum]

Originally Posted by dmatre

I don't know about untreated wood, but I recently did our stained deck with a light bleach solution (purchased in a hose-mounted spray bottle).

I did it early morning (in the shade), wet everything down evenly, agitated with a stiff brush, then rinsed completely. Never let it dry on the wood. Results were perfect, with no streaking/spotting.

I would think as long as everything stays wet until rinsing, you shouldn't get any spotting.

Interesting, thanks for the input I'll try it.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

this is the one i bought.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fiskars-S...BoCmTQQAvD_BwE

yup pull behind dethatcher. you need to set yours up right if it's making grooves into your lawn. in should be scraping the thatch area only. i have a 1/2 acre so using an electric version would take to long.

Ah...weed shotgun. I had one but the foot thing broke pretty quickly and rendered the whole thing useless. Worked awesome up until that point. Fiskars supposedly has a really good return/exchange policy but it was OBE for me.

I have the same type of dethatching implement for my lawn tractor. I admit that I was VERY aggressive with it when I last used it. The grooves were mostly because of some uneven-ness in my backyard......coupled w/ my aggressiveness. lol I didn't mind so much because I was going to overseed some areas at that time.

My yard is about 0.75 acres. I aborted using the electric dethatcher but not because of yard size. Warm temps this week (even though they drop next week) spiked up the soil temps and I've noticed that I'm already gettings some weeds coming up. Today, I decided to switch applications of the prill fert/Dimension vs the tank sprayer Dimension. I just finished throwing down the prills at a fair rate (~ 1.1lbs/1000sq ft of N). That's still than the label called for but more N than I usually put down. I don't mind so much since it's the 1st feeding since October and I don't want the Pre-M to be too diluted (I used about 0.8lbs/1000sq ft less than the label). It's supposed to rain in a little bit so it'll all get watered in.

[Our03z4]

As a licensed and certified pro of almost 20 years I've never seen a lawn that needs dethatching. (This is on Fescue/Rye) Get plenty of calls from homeowners thinking they do but when the lawn is checked it's fine. You can have up to 1/2inch of thatch before it's an issue. It actually helps the lawn below that level. With out it you'll break the crowns off just by walking over it, it plays an important role. That said for southern turf types I have no clue. Also if you aerate every year that also gets rid of thatch.

Don't trust everything you see on YouTube, most of the guys are just glorified home owners. Once you take care of thousands of properties and go to school for it you know what's right and wrong.

You guys put an amazing amount of effort into your properties, I would be honored to have you all as my neighbor! Keep it up

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

As a licensed and certified pro of almost 20 years I've never seen a lawn that needs dethatching. (This is on Fescue/Rye) Get plenty of calls from homeowners thinking they do but when the lawn is checked it's fine. You can have up to 1/2inch of thatch before it's an issue. It actually helps the lawn below that level. With out it you'll break the crowns off just by walking over it, it plays an important role. That said for southern turf types I have no clue. Also if you aerate every year that also gets rid of thatch.

Don't trust everything you see on YouTube, most of the guys are just glorified home owners. Once you take care of thousands of properties and go to school for it you know what's right and wrong.

You guys put an amazing amount of effort into your properties, I would be honored to have you all as my neighbor! Keep it up

if you can provide more reason and proof why a lawn should not be dethatched than i just can't believe this. anyways, i don't think you need a degree, or go to school or be in the business to understand why and why you shouldn't dethatch your lawn. anyways, have a nice day

[spazzyfry123]

Ripped up about 15 shrubs and created a new edge by hand for the new mulch. Had to save the poor Japanese Maple that was being smothered by everything from the previous owners. Hostas by the house and lantana out in the open are up next.

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

if you can provide more reason and proof why a lawn should not be dethatched than i just can't believe this. anyways, i don't think you need a degree, or go to school or be in the business to understand why and why you shouldn't dethatch your lawn. anyways, have a nice day

https://extension.psu.edu/managing-thatch-in-lawns

This link is from the best college for turf and they are on the cutting edge in my industry. Also have a lot of great tools for free. Guess you would doubt your Dr if a guy on YouTube said different huh? Just trying to save you guys some time is all. I'll stay out of this thread and let you all do you. I only have about 1,400 years of home owner experience and have won awards after all.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

https://extension.psu.edu/managing-thatch-in-lawns

This link is from the best college for turf and they are on the cutting edge in my industry. Also have a lot of great tools for free. Guess you would doubt your Dr if a guy on YouTube said different huh? Just trying to save you guys some time is all. I'll stay out of this thread and let you all do you. I only have about 1,400 years of home owner experience and have won awards after all.

Um okay. You do you booboo

On that note the grass is getting pretty green fellows! must be from the dethatching but im no expert. Just a simple DIY homeowner like all of you

[bosstones]

To be honest, I tend to use my dethatcher as a bit more of a rake to get up/out dead stuff or to break it up so more air/light can get down, not to actually break up and remove the thatch. This is particularly true in the spring when there has been some die off under the snow. Except last year when I overseeded and went agressive w/ the implement.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by bosstones

To be honest, I tend to use my dethatcher as a bit more of a rake to get up/out dead stuff or to break it up so more air/light can get down, not to actually break up and remove the thatch. This is particularly true in the spring when there has been some die off under the snow. Except last year when I overseeded and went agressive w/ the implement.

agree! that dead stuff needs to be removed from the lawn after the winter. there's a couple years that i did not do this and lawn would be green but you can see all the dead grass as well but after using the dethatcher the lawn looked a lot greener.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

I only have about 1,400 years of home owner experience and have won awards after all.

wow...you must be Yoda!

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

wow...you must be Yoda!

That I am

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by bosstones

To be honest, I tend to use my dethatcher as a bit more of a rake to get up/out dead stuff or to break it up so more air/light can get down, not to actually break up and remove the thatch. This is particularly true in the spring when there has been some die off under the snow. Except last year when I overseeded and went agressive w/ the implement.

That's an okay way of doing it. Wish others would listen that thatch is rarely a bad thing but hey guess the whole landscape industry is wrong.

[tim99ws6]

I generally dethatch every other year. I do it in the fall, as I prefer not to stress the shit out of my yard in spring or especially summer. I also only seed in the fall, to get maximum % survival out of it.

Really, I think 90% of it is having an irrigation system. Without it, all the cool tools, aeration, dethatchers, etc, are just fighting a losing battle.

For dethatching, I will say it seems to help the grass jump better in the spring than the year I dont do it. My fall process:

-Cut LOW(I typically cut 2x a week at 4", and fall cut at around 2ish"
-Dethatch creating a freaking mess in my yard(the first year I did this in my new-to-me home 4 years ago my neighbors thought I was CRAZY)

-Then rather than rake, I do single spray passes pushing the grasses off the yard(yea, I might not get 95% of it off the yard, but I get a good 75% IMO)

-Run irrigation, then immediately plug-aerate

-Overseed with Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue.

That's my script. Works for me and my yard. But, we are all just dad-bodding our way through this thing haha.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

That's an okay way of doing it. Wish others would listen that thatch is rarely a bad thing but hey guess the whole landscape industry is wrong.

I'll likely still run my electric dethatcher in some areas. I'll set it so it stays clear of ground level so as to not disturb the pre-emergent that went down on Saturday (& watered in by rain ). 1st mow coming up this weekend to help get rid of....dead ends.

I spot checked thickness of thatch layer in some areas of my lawn last fall and didn't deem it worth it. I was more worried because of trying to establish a new yard and having a lot of die off coming out of winter or other reasons. It was not super dense so I just rake stuff out and leave most of the thatch intact. A few small areas were dethatched but only out of experimentation. Thatch is beneficial. I think it gets a bad rep. lol

[roastbeef]

Finished my chores and prepping the bbq for steaks.

[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

You don’t have St. Augustine do you? St. Augustine does not require dethatching on a regular basis. I could see the need once if the lawn had been neglected but otherwise it should not be needed regularly. That would make next year even easier.

(Disregard if you don’t have St. Augustine.)

This. I've had only one home without St. Augustine and it was nightmare to keep the yard at acceptable levels. Never again.