Lawn care recommendations

[psychlone99]

Looking for a reasonably priced DM-area service to do some lawn dethatching and aerating. The rentals from the local hardware store are a bit more pricey than anticipated, so I may as well see what a pro will do it for.

Thanks.

[brianhos]

Go in with your neighbors and aerate. That is what we always do. 1 guy rents it, and 5 of us do our lawns and pick up the entire tab.

[ChrisMWilliams]

Call A + Lawn and Landscape. They are a CF advertiser.

[Steve]

Looking for a reasonably priced DM-area service to do some lawn dethatching and aerating. The rentals from the local hardware store are a bit more pricey than anticipated, so I may as well see what a pro will do it for.

Thanks.

Aerating is almost always a good move. Dethatching is usually not required and is often even detrimental - let nature do it's thing and break down the organic matter into nutrients for the lawn.

[CyPride]

Aerating is almost always a good move. Dethatching is usually not required and is often even detrimental - let nature do it's thing and break down the organic matter into nutrients for the lawn.

agreed. best time to aerate is after September 1st. combine that with an overseeding of a new variety of bluegrass and some starter fertilizer, and remember that bluegrass takes 21-30 days to germinate, so be prepared to water.

[Cyclonesrule91]

Aerating is almost always a good move. Dethatching is usually not required and is often even detrimental - let nature do it's thing and break down the organic matter into nutrients for the lawn.

Agree, Dethatch in the spring and aerate in the fall. The whole reason you dethatch is to pick up the matted down dead plant material allowing the soil to warm up faster and new seeding/dormant grass coming out of dormancy to have as little problem emerging as possible. Ground with matted plant material stays wet longer and doesn't warm up as fast either which is another reason. You know how you bag up grass clippings and spread it out over your garden to keep weeds down? It does the same thing to grass trying to emerge in the spring. Not a whole lot of reason for that in the fall.

Go in with your neighbors and get an aerator and do quite a few yards and split the cost. I rent one every fall and pay around $42 and last year did 7 yards. $6 / yard plus a little bit of gas. Do the same thing with the dethatching machine in the spring.

[CyPride]

Agree, Dethatch in the spring and aerate in the fall. The whole reason you dethatch is to pick up the matted down dead plant material allowing the soil to warm up faster and new seeding to take better or as the grass comes out of dormacy it is not fighting for sunlight to come out of the ground. You know how you bag up grass clippings and spreading it out over your garden to keep weeds down? It does the same thing to grass trying to emerge in the spring. Not a whole lot of reason for that in the fall.

Go in with your neighbors and get an aerator and do quite a few yards and split the cost. I rent one every fall and pay around $42 and last year did 7 yards. $6 / yard plus a little bit of gas. Do the same thing with the dethatching machine in the spring.

i've not ever bagged my grass. i have a honda which does a great job mulching up the clippings to a fine level - you can't even see any of it on the grass after mowing. I let the heat, the moisture, the bacteria, the criters, do their thing. I can look at the base of my grass plants and see soil.

[Cyclonesrule91]

i've not ever bagged my grass. i have a honda which does a great job mulching up the clippings to a fine level - you can't even see any of it on the grass after mowing. I let the heat, the moisture, the bacteria, the criters, do their thing. I can look at the base of my grass plants and see soil.

I don't bag either and my lawn mower, a Snapper by the way not that it matters, mulches just fine too. But the grass you have that goes dormant in the winter, especially when there was a lot of snow like last winter, mats(or however you spell it) the grass so it is stuck to the ground. Wait till the ground drys out and starts to warm up, dethatch it and you yard takes off faster.

[psychlone99]

Thanks to all for the advice. After a close inspection, I don't believe any dethatching is really necessary. I had kind of assumed it would be necessary since I haven't done it since moving in a few years ago, but my mower and mother nature must be doing their jobs.

As for the aerating, I did a screw driver test, and it sank into most of my yard very easily. That said, I do have some areas where it getting pretty hard. It's probably only 10-15 percent of my lawn, but that 10-15 percent is almost concrete.

So I have a follow-up: Since we're talking no more than about 1,500 sq ft, I may just try a manual aerator. Has anyone used one of these before?

[Cyclonesrule91]

If what you mean by a manual aerator is the type you step on like a soil sample probe taking one core at a time, then I would either get the machine to do it or don't do it at all.

[Senolcyc]

Looking for a reasonably priced DM-area service to do some lawn dethatching and aerating. The rentals from the local hardware store are a bit more pricey than anticipated, so I may as well see what a pro will do it for.

Thanks.

The plugs left over from aerating are as unsightly as bad grass, imo. Recommendation: golf shoes with longest spikes you can find. Walk around your yard. It's aerated without the plug problem.

De-thatching is unnecessary if you sufficiently mulch, bag or rake and never mow too much off the blades in any given mowing. If needed one time, have it done and then keep up and you'll never need it again.

[CyCrazy]

If what you mean by a manual aerator is the type you step on like a soil sample probe taking one core at a time, then I would either get the machine to do it or don't do it at all.

Well you can get soil probes that take 3 cores at once.

[Steve]

Recommendation: golf shoes with longest spikes you can find. Walk around your yard. It's aerated without the plug problem.

I guess that you could benefit from the exercise, but please don't even pretend that this kind of gimmick would provide any benefit to a lawn. A good aeration pulls a 2 or 3 inch plug. Even if you could find spikes that long, all that you would be doing is compacting the soil between the spikes - not a good idea.

[CyCrazy]

I guess that you could benefit from the exercise, but please don't even pretend that this kind of gimmick would provide any benefit to a lawn. A good aeration pulls a 2 or 3 inch plug. Even if you could find spikes that long, all that you would be doing is compacting the soil between the spikes - not a good idea.

His idea really isnt that far off..... Golf courses use solid tines all the time with out pulling cores. And no it doesnt compact the soil around the solid tine.

But yes the golf shoe spike is rather funny, which I would love to see.

[Senolcyc]

His idea really isnt that far off..... Golf courses use solid tines all the time with out pulling cores. And no it doesnt compact the soil around the solid tine.

But yes the golf shoe spike is rather funny, which I would love to see.

They actually sell a gizmo that slips onto your shoes and is basically an aerating shoe. But the result is really just a golf shoe with long spikes. So since I already had golf shoes, I just found really long spikes, put them on for just that purpose, then put regular spikes back on.

Anyone who makes money aerating lawns or spends cash to pull the big plugs in their lawn is going to say this is stupid and won't work. My lawn proves otherwise.