Re: Lawnmower dethatching blades?
Well I can't speak about the coast but here in the prairies we get long spells of very dry followed by very wet followed by freakin cold followed by very freakin hot. In the last 20 years I have owned four houses, all of them had poor lawns when I took ownership.
After I bought my first house I attempted to fix the crabgrass lawn into something that was at least presentable and not full of dandelions. I spent a lot of money on fertilizer and weed killer with little improvement, but my neighbor down the street had a lawn that looked like a bowling green...it was perfect and always dark green. I figured I knew as much about lawn care as I knew about being pregnant so I decided to consult an obvious professional, he never seemed to spend much time on his lawn other than walking around with golf shoes on picking up garbage.
I asked him to come and have a beer and share his secret to a great lawn with me. Turns out he was head greenkeeper at a local golf course and knew a thing or two about lawns. Over the next hour he walked around my yard and bounced up and down on his feet a few times looking very carefully at this thing and that before saying anything, after what seemed like a long time he finally told me what was wrong with my lawn and some secrets to getting it into good condition and how to keep it that way so it didn't cost a fortune to maintain.
Here is what he told me and what I needed to do to get my lawn back to full health without weeds.
1) If you can't see bare earth under the grass it needs to be dethatched, earth needs to breathe to stay healthy and attract beneficial insects/bacteria. Mulching is fine but you need to maintain a balance of bare earth to grass mulch coverage of 50/50. He then mentioned that with a small lawn (it was 70X100FT! small to him I guess!) like mine keeping mulch off the lawn makes the lawn look greener by the black earth contrasting with the green grass. He said he never mulched his as it would mean dethatching every few years and he hated raking so he bagged everything.
2) Aerate the lawn especially in heavy traffic areas, if you can't feel the ground bounce under you as you jump up and down it needs aerating or weeds will take hold since they will grow preferentially in those areas and spread. He then mentioned his golf shoes had hollow spikes that did the job as he walked around the yard, guess thats why he wore them.
3) Forget weed killer, it kills healthy organisms and is only temporary...you need to manually remove weeds as they appear. It might take a year or two of religious removal to get them all but as your lawn regains health it will become easier.
4) Forget fertilizer, its expensive and isn't permanent. Instead add a layer of top soil every year, even an 1/8" is enough to keep up with settling and keep the soil fresh. Be prepared to deal with weeds as they appear from fresh topsoil since they will contain live weed seed but at least the soil is healthy and full of good organisms. Watch the first couple of weeks and catch the weeds early and they are easy to pull.
5) Keep the lawn long while it regains health, 2" at least since the length will help control weeds and retain moisture. If you like the short look you can cut it short but it has to be healthy before you do that and have a healthy soil base to stay that way.
6) A shear style mower is the best for getting the lawn square and sharp and preventing browning on the tips but a sharp rotary mower will get it close for a lot less cost, sharpen your blade every month and replace it every year. I use an angle grinder to sharpen mine in 10 minutes every month.
7) Try not to water the lawn with potable tap water, it contains a small amount of bleach that kills healthy organisms not to mention fluoride. Unless I used collected rain water to water it would likely be better to not water at all unless it was an emergency. In general a healthy lawn has long deep roots that can pull water from deep in the ground, Watering encourages short stocky roots and the lawn gets dependant, you don't need to water unless the earth starts to crack, I completely stopped watering on his advice.
I listened to what he said and started on the lawn, it took me two years to get it really nice and green and some fresh seed/soil in some areas that were too far gone to be worthwhile saving but it was looking better month after month, it also regained growth faster in the spring after the melt...my neighbors were jealous. I was most impressed at how the crab grass got choked out by the healthy grass since it started getting healthy...who knew.
On year two he stopped by on a Saturday to have a look, this time he brought the beer. He walked around giving me tips to use on different areas but in general was impressed with the progress I had made. I mentioned that once I got it healthy it was actually less trouble to maintain, he nodded and said...now you need to try to keep up with 200 hundred golfers walking on it every day.
Point taken.:redface:
On the next three houses it took about two years to get them looking good but the money I saved by not messing around with chemicals has paid off. I may have missed some of the tricks he told me about but it was his simple philosophy that impressed me most, amazingly it also cost the least out of my pocket.
