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If you spend a lot of time caring for your lawn it is disheartening when moss and thatch destroy the look and health of your grass. A few days of heavy rain followed by a weekend away, and the next time you go out to cut the grass, your lawn looks seriously scruffy. You do not want to use chemicals on it as you try to garden organically as much as possible. You can use an electric lawn rake to get rid of the moss, but first you need to know how deep rooted the damage is to your lawn.
Restoring your lawn, should you scarify or rake?
Moss and thatch smother your lawn, preventing air getting to it and stopping the grass from growing. Before attacking your lawn, check whether it is moss or thatch causing the problem. Thatch is slowly dying old grass, the layer between soil and grass, and up to a quarter of an inch is not a problem. However, if your lawn feels spongy underfoot, and the thatch is over a quarter of an inch you need to scarify your lawn. If the thatch is over 2 inches, it will have blocked the grass from reaching the soil, and the grass, desperate for water and nutrients will grow into the thatch. Scarifying will literally lift the whole lot, thatch and grass, so you will have to lay a new lawn. Moss, is light and shallow rooted, and raking the lawn is a better option. Raking by hand is possible, but back breaking, and needs a lot of pressure to be effective; an electric lawn rake is a less exhausting option.
How does an electric lawn rake or scarifier work?
If you scarify your lawn, you are using blade tines of steel to chop at the grass, and cut out the thatch. When the blades cut into the soil, you are opening the soil surface to create a seed bed for new lawn seed. When you scarify, the blades prune the grass rather than cut it, this helps it to thicken. An electric lawn rake is fitted with wire tines, perfect for pulling and ripping moss out, and excellent for clearing dead, brown grass after a drought. The electric lawn rake often has the wire on a flail system, so it spins round and this causes a lot less damage to the lawn, whilst pulling up the moss. It will also bounce off any stones in the way, so no damage to the rake either. Using an electric lawn rake is much less harmful to your garden environment than moss killing herbicides. If you use your electric lawn rake regularly to remove debris from your lawn and scarify your lawn once a year, then your lawn will return to good health.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about gardening tools and gardening information at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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