As Seen in the Blog picture, removing dead grass and Core Aeration, for soil decompaction is essential to the overall health of your lawns, “those with a fertilizing program”, which we all do! In Calgary our climate dictates a winter season, grass goes into “hibernation” or a dormant state. The sub zero temperatures kills all prior seasons grass blades and the snow accumulation packs the un natural growth density down against the lawns base. Along with other Yardley debris and harmful molds. In the spring, once the snow has melted, we are left with a thick collection of these dead compressed blades of grass. This thick layer of organic material is known as “thatch”. The now warmer weather begins to rejuvenate the lawn, awakening the roots and new grass shoots try to reach the sun. However these un nourished signs of life have to struggle through the compact thatch. Snow mold can and will promote diseases. It needs to be removed for a healthy lawn! This thatch acts somewhat like a sponge that absorbs any moister (depending on thickness and sun exposure), inhibiting water reaching the roots, to nourish new growth. The water can and usually evaporates before it can reach the roots or the thatch will begin to Rot ! This only leads to dieses and poor growth performance, and non productive micro-organism growth. I’ve seen this first hand on many lawns that I have cared for over the last 27 years! If the thatch is not removed, new growth will have difficulty growing its new shoots. Your lawn wont look as lush as it could. It will have a brown “tinge” from thick thatch under the new grass blades.
In nature this is the process of recycling but can take years to achieve a viable, usable substrate. In the hustle and bustle of daily life we use chemical fertilizers to replace Natures slow process. Thatch also impedes fertilizer, water and oxygen from reaching the roots! We recommend you power rake your lawn every spring. call us to remove your lawns thatch and evaluate your growth medium, by sampling your core aeration plugs for vitality and composition.
Equipment used:
Power Rakers acts like a comb. Steel tines rotate at high RPM’s and lifts up the dry thatch, either expelling it into a bag or our a shoot to be collected and removed. It takes experience to operate this machine properly. If the tines are set to low you can do major damage to the lawns root system which can take the lawn months to recover from. You can use a thatch rake but it would be cumbersome and inefficient.
Please view the photos below. the bottom left is a current 2 year client that we built up a strong root system, fertilized correctly and through core aeration had the proper medium for roots to grow generously.
The bottom right photo is a Time capture of the lawns thatch inhibiting thick growth on clients properties, still in to August!
I hope to have convinced you, as a professional chemical engineer, to take care of our environment by allowing the maximum co2 capture/ sequester of lawns by having the thickest growth possible; yielding you a beautiful lawn lush lawn at the same time!
Jeff Karr.
