Thatch can best be described as a build -up of dead grass that lies beneath the grass plant and your soil. Without proper treatment throughout the summer months, it can be the instigator of disease and can leave your grass looking, not only patchy and mottled, but also give the impression of being spongy under foot in damper conditions. Thatch can also lead to diseases such as Red Thread and Dollar Spot.

Thatch build up, as already discussed, is a build -up of dead grass that lies beneath the grass plant and your soil and can be attributed to the onslaught of Red Thread and Dollar Spot. It is also one of the most common food sources for blackbirds and attracts them as well as slugs and worms. Blackbirds pulling thatch from your lawn cannot only cause disease to spread but it is often unsightly and can spoil the look of even the most pristine looking lawn.

Other ways to cause Thatch:

• Incorrect use of fertilisers
• Over watering
• Poor soil conditions
• Infrequent aeration
• Infrequent scarification

Dealing with Thatch

Thatch can be dealt in a number of ways, by raking the grass and pulling the carpet of dead grass to the surface so that it can be brushed or raked anyway. Generally if you can rake the dead grass into piles, pick it up and bag it for disposal, this goes a long way to reducing the risk of disease in your lawn. A spring-tined rake is the best for this purpose.

Rotary mowers, which have a blade mounted horizontally and are powered by a motor, are also useful in that they normally have a grass collecting facility to the rear of the mower which collects up the loose or dead grass and stores it for easier disposal rather than spreading it over the lawn. If the thatch build up in your lawn is excessive then it will have to be scarified heavily to remove all unwanted organic material such as moss, undesirable broadleaved growth and thatch. The area will then have be hollow tined - this process removes thatch that is deeper within the root-zone. Once this is complete a topdressing ( mixture of sand 60% and 40% soil ) is brushed into the holes created by the hollow tiner, a slow release fertiliser is then incorporated into this mix then brushed in, the area is then over seeded, brushed again and left.

A Heavy Duty Powered Graden Scarifier, De-Thatcher and Linear Aerator. This is not your box standard Lawn/Turf Scarifier but designed for use only by Turf Professionals.