With the arrival of April, we can soon expect our lawns to start looking a lot healthier and green thanks to sunnier skies mixed in with those much-needed springtime showers. Hopefully your lawn comes back from the winter in style, looking green and perfect. But sometimes, that’s not the case. It’s possible you’ll notice something called “thatch.”

Spotting Thatch

Thatch is a layer of dead-looking stems and roots that appears at the ground’s surface. You can often spot it between healthy green blades of grass. Thatch in itself isn’t necessarily bad because it can actually protect lawn roots – but when it builds up in excess, it can threaten the overall health of your lawn by blocking important nutrients such as rainwater and sunlight from reaching the roots of healthy blades of grass. That being said, you’ll want to address it.

Getting Rid of Thatch

So you’ve determined that your lawn has a pretty bad thatch problem. No worries though, there are some things you can do to rid your lawn of the problem. Usually you’ll want to dethatch either during the beginning of the spring or fall seasons:

• Thatching Rake – A thatching rake is different from your standard rake because it features a number of sharp knife-like tips that are spread out just enough to reach around healthy blades of grass, yet effectively reach the ground-level and tear through thick layers of thatch. You can usually find a pretty decent dethatching rake for sale at around $30. Tip: If you go with this option, you’ll want to be careful, not pressing down the rake too hard, but just enough to pull up excess thatch debris. If it’s your first time dethatching, you might be surprised regarding how much thatch you pull up.

• Electric Thatcher – Thatching rakes are most ideal when handling lawn care for smaller areas. But if you have a larger lawn to cover, an electric thatcher is perhaps more ideal. These often look like push lawnmowers and are usually available for around $100 to $150.

• Riding Lawn Mower – If you already own a riding lawn mower, you can often find some pretty effective attachments that’ll address thatch. This is a good option for bigger lawns as well.

• Professional Services – Lawn care professionals such as Green Stuff Outdoor Services provide affordable dethatching solutions that are extremely thorough.

Preventative Measures

You can help prevent thatch from forming in the first place by consistently removing debris such as leaves and bagging your grass when mowing. By guarding against thatch, you can keep your lawn not only healthy, but looking vibrant, great, and extra green.