WHY SCARIFY A LAWN

Why scarify a lawn?

Let's face it, scarifying lawns is hard work and I don't think that anyone would do this job willingly unless it was to reap some serious rewards in the future. So why scarify a lawn? Well the point of scarification is to keep the levels of thatch down to acceptable levels. Thatch being old grass stems, dead moss and any other such plant material taking up space at the base of your lawn.

The reason why we scarify is because a thick layer of thatch (anything larger than 1 cm deep) will impede the effectiveness of fertiliser applications and absorb rain water like a sponge preventing it from reaching the mat-like roots of your lawn - two things that can seriously affect the quality of your grass. Removing the thatch will help the grass by increases the levels of water, air and nutrients that are available to the lawn's root zone. This encourages the grass to thicken up, making it stronger and therefore less susceptible to disease. A thick layer of thatch will weaken the lawn making it more susceptible to diseases and less able to compete with common weeds and moss.

However with collection boxes on lawnmowers as standard and weed and moss killers readily available as well as cheap as chips, is there really still a need to brave the elements, wear out your arms and blister your hands?

Unfortunately the answer is yes, because lawnmower collection boxes will not collect every single grass clipping and any moss or weeds controlled by weed killers do not magically disappear. So thatch will still build up over time, although perhaps not as fast.

Ok, so if you you have made up your mind to scarify then you have two choices. The easy (more expansive) way or the hard (traditional and fitness enhancing) way. The hard way is how most gardeners scarify a lawn and that is to go over it vigorously with a spring-tine rake. A regular garden rake is not the tool for this job. The easy way is to purchase a rolling lawn scarifier, however for larger lawns and deeper pockets electric and even petrol powered scarifiers can be purchased.

Scarifying is quite and invasive procedure even for well-maintained, established lawns so don't over scarify as this can cause more harm than good. Avoid scarifying in the spring as your lawn will struggle to recover. Autumn is the best time of year to scarify lawns.

Main image credit - Simon Eade gardenofeaden@gmail.com

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WHY SCARIFY A LAWN
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