De-thatching the lawn
It's time for a makeover and spa week
for the lawn. Five years after planting, some bald patches had
developed, the turf was thinning, and it was looking as patchy as a
shedding bison. It had a rough couple of years in 2012 and 2013
because I wasn't here to monitor the watering and mowing. And some of
the Bermuda died, leaving bald spots.
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| Shaggy buffalo eating grass |
In the wild, buffalo grass would be
closely grazed by bison or cows and occasionally be burned to the
ground in a grass fire. I'm going to mimic that by mowing it short
and de-thatching it. For comparison, annual de-thatching is recommended for Bermuda grass.
Mow It. My mower doesn't
have the power to close-cut long grass, so I set the mower at the
highest level and mow the grass. Use the collecting bag.
Mow It Shorter. Lower the blades
to the middle setting and do it again. Do not "scalp" the
Buffalo by mowing it at the lowest setting. It doesn't like that.
De-thatch It. I used a thatch
rake, also called a "Bermuda rake". Doing the 1200+ square
feet of lawn took me about 5 days, working a couple hours every day in the morning and evening to
avoid the sun.
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| De-Thatching Rake |
De-thatch a 2-
3-foot strip across the lawn, then rake the de-thatched area lightly
at right angles to your previous raking. Pick up the thatch and dump
it on your compost pile. Repeat with the next strip.
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| This is only part of the thatch I removed. |
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| After de-thatching on the left, before on the right |
Mow it ... again at the same
setting, and collect the clippings.
This is a quick mow that gets rid of the tufts left by the
de-thatching process. I collected less than a bag full for the whole lawn.
DE-THATCHING
TIP: Trying to rake by pulling horizontally through the grass
takes way too much muscle power. The most effective technique is to
rake towards yourself until the tines snag under the thatch, then
lift up and lift the thatch out of the grass. It's a circular lifting
motion, a lot like fluffing up a poodle.
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| Set the rake like this, and use the teeth at the left - for raking and lifting. |
Why not use powertools for de-thatching?
A thatching bladed on a mower might work, but you will
still be raking up piles and piles of dead grass afterwards. We
couldn't find a de-thatching blade that would fit our mower.
The "Verti-cutter"
power de-thatching machines would probably just chew up the roots
without helping the grass.
9 comments:
Where do you end up getting your buffalo grass from? We also live in the Valley of the Sun and are interested in it because I have read about it being more allergy friendly. Thanks!
We bought from Todd Valley Farms in Nebraska and had the plugs shipped in.
Civano nursery in Tucson is the AZ distributor. The trays of plugs are light-weight and you could easily bring them up from Tucson, or have them shipped.
READ THIS: It's most of the mistakes we made.
http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2009/08/watching-grass-grow-week-20-confessing.html
AND THIS: It's the whole series on Buffalo Grass. The Zeba Root Dip is ESSENTIAL!
http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/search/label/buffalo%20grass
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IF you are allergic to Bermuda pollen, the almost-seedless Bermuda hybrids, like TIF 419, might work.
UC Verde Buffalo - because it is a female-only clone - produces no pollen.
If you have a skin allergy to Bermuda. Buffalo might work. It has thinner, softer blades.
Have you done any core aerating for the buffalo lawn? I've never had a problem with thatch since I started core aerating twice a year.
No core aerating, which is just another way to remove stuff
We would not have had the thatch problem if I had not abandoned it to the black thumb of the SO. He cut it short, didn't collect the clippings a few times and basically treated it like Bermuda and not Buffalo.
He's been edumacated since then.
There is a lot that goes into lawn care that I didn't know about. My dad used to aerate the lawn when I was at school. When I came back I was confused because I thought something had defecated all over the lawn. I had thought just mowing and watering a lawn would keep it healthy.
http://www.mardiparkturf.com.au/palmetto-buffalo11
Looks like you’ve forgotten core aeration. This method can save your buffalo from dying as aeration helps your lawn develop a deeper and stronger root system. If you don’t mind me asking, what type of buffalo do you have? I have a Sir Walter buffalo turf
Jamie,
The buffalo grass you're talking about is called St. Augustine grass here in the states. The buffalo grass Lazy is growing is different species native to the plains of America. St. Augustine typically doesn't grow above the latitude line of Atlanta Georgia to Dallas Texas. West of Dallas the climate becomes too dry without a massive amount of irrigation for St. Augustine.
6 years later and I’m going to add to this thread. I have UC Verde Buffalo Grass. Is it better to aerate or de-thatch it before fertilizing/composting. I’m going to mix a grape compost with
Blazzin -
I wouldn't compost or fertilize. Buffalo grass doesn't require a lot of fertilizer, and the thatch, unless it is really matted down, acts like a mulch.
Save the grape pressings for a vegetable garden.
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