5 Benefits Of Dethatching Your Lawn

When it comes to your lawn, thatch is the layer of dead grass and living organic material that builds up over time. While thatch is natural, too much of it can be a problem.

That's why dethatching your lawn—or removing that organic matter—is an important part of your lawn maintenance.

Here are five benefits of dethatching your lawn:

1. Improved Air and Water Circulation

Air and water are the core ingredients for a healthy lawn. When thatch builds up, it can create a barrier between your lawn and the air and water it needs to stay healthy. This dense mat—a thatch layer—covers the soil so that the grassroots receive very little water and chokes off the air exchange.

Dethatching removes this barrier, helping to improve air and water circulation, which is vital for healthy grass and a green lawn.

2. Reduced Pests and Diseases

A thick thatch layer can provide a perfect environment for pests, fungus, insects, and lawn diseases to thrive. Think about it: there's no air circulating to help dry the lawn's thatch layer, and the grass isn't able to get a healthy water supply.

Dethatching helps reduce the risk of pests and diseases by removing their hiding and breeding ground.

3. Better Nutrient Absorption

Nutrients are essential for a healthy lawn. However, when thatch buildup is present, it can prevent grass blades from absorbing the sufficient nutrients they need.

Dethatching helps improve nutrient absorption, so your lawn can get the nourishment it needs to stay healthy. Here are the most important nutrients for a great-looking lawn.

• Nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most critical nutrient for keeping your lawn healthy, giving it the vibrant green color that we all love. Nitrogen also helps keep the grass blades growing straight up and strong. Lack of nitrogen can cause poor growth and your grass will lack the beautiful, deep green color.
• Phosphorous. Phosphorous promotes healthy root growth and makes your grass strong. At the same time, if you add too much phosphorous, it can build up in the soil and leak into your water supply.
• Potassium. Potassium helps activate other nutrients and minerals in your lawn, which in turn help your grass grow. Potassium also helps protect your lawn against pests and extreme temperature fluctuations.

4. Enhanced Root Growth

The roots are the foundation of a healthy lawn. Roots and grass blades have a direct relationship with each other. Good roots equal healthy grass.

To get your grass to live longer, you'll want to allow your roots to grow as deep into the soil as possible. Enhanced root growth also helps with nutrient digestion.

When thatch is present, it can hamper healthy root growth. Dethatching helps promote root growth, leading to a healthier lawn.

5. Improved Drainage

Dethatching your lawn can help improve its drainage by removing the thatch layer. This will allow water to reach the existing roots of your grass, and it will also help to aerate the soil. Aerating the soil will improve its structure and make it easier for your grass to grow.

Drainage is extremely important for the health of your lawn because most plants require well-drained soil to grow and prosper. If the soil on your lawn is poorly drained, it can lead to a number of problems, including plants that are stunted or fail to thrive, brown patches in the lawn, and root rot.

Related: Does your lawn still look bad after dethatching?

Dethatch Carefully

While dethatching your lawn has many benefits, you should be mindful that it's not always necessary, as there are both pros and cons to dethatching. And you shouldn't have to dethatch more than once per year, at most.

In fact, dethatching too often or without a real need can actually be detrimental to lawns. The aggressive raking associated with dethatching can damage grassroots and make the lawn more susceptible to disease and pests. So, unless you have a good reason, you might want to think twice before dethatching your lawn.

Here are some tips for making sure you're only dethatching when it's truly required.

• If a thatch layer greater than 1 inch is present, then you should dethatch your lawn. If you have a thin layer of thatch—less than 1 inch—that can actually be beneficial for your lawn since it reduces soil compaction. In that case, you don't have to do anything.
• Before dethatching, mow your lawn to two inches, as this will produce the best results when removing excess thatch.
• Use a dethatching rake or an electric dethatching machine for the job. A regular leaf rake won't get the job done up to par, and neither will a dethatching blade mower attachment. And a verticutting machine is probably overkill, as is a power rake and scarifier.
• The best time to dethatch is when the lawn is growing most actively. This is going to depend on the type of grass that you have! For cool-season grasses, that's usually going to be either early spring or early fall. For warm-season grasses, that's typically end-of-spring through the beginning of summer.
• Don't dethatch after it rains or if your lawn is overly wet.

And here are some tips on what to do with the thatch when you're done dethatching.