To rake or not to rake?

Should we rake the lawn before winter or leave it until the spring? We have a lot of moss in the lawn (apart from the fungus I've asked about in a separate thread) and don't know what to do for the best. Advice please!

 

I personally have always raked the moss out twice a year, in early April and between now and the end of September and its never done the lawn any harm. Just don't leave it to late

Hope this helps

 

As long as your grass is still actively growing (to fill the spaces left when you rake out the moss), you should be OK. Leave it too late and you'll have just cleared a perfect space for the moss to grow back in. Winter is the main moss growing season.

 

Once you have raked your lawn, preferably before the end of September to get rid of the thatch it has grown, don't forget to aerate it. Do this during a fairly dry period so as to avoid rain water filling the holes you've made. Aeration helps to alleviate compaction caused by walking over it during the earlier months. And if you suffer from falling leaves during autumn, make sure that you rake these off too.

 

what do you use to do this?would a fork do or do you need something thinner?why rake the leaves off?you can hardly see my lawn when the wind comes around this time of year.There's trees all around my house so we get piles of them:hehe:

 

A fork will do - stick in and wiggle a bit before withdrawing.

Ideally a hollow-tine aerator "fork" is used. This removes a core from the lawn, making a nice hole without compacting the surrounding soil.



Or you can hire a machine that will do it - many of them make slits with "knives", rather than doing the hollow-tine thing.

 

i should do this to all of the lawn?my lawns are huge :( i'll be there till next yr:D

 

"i should do this to all of the lawn?"

Yup

"my lawns are huge"

Hire a gizmo. Simples

 

Cyril, you are absolutely right. If you are surrounded by trees, you are on to a losing battle to keep the leaves at bay. Lawns require so much tender loving care that it's the reason I no longer have one. Of course, if a gardener has the time to spare and can produce a near perfect lawn, they can show off a garden beautifully, and although I'm retired I simply don't have that sort of time to spare. I quite often say that there are simply not enough hours in the week for what I'd like to be doing...

 

I raked out our lawn last week, it was new turf laid in May but still was a scary amount of thatch.

I'm not sure how best to aerate it though. We don't have any specific tool for this, would a garden fork suffice? If so how much of a gap should I leave between the rows of holes?

 

A garden fork should be fine. It just makes smaller holes than a hollow tine aerator. I tend to do mine with a fork at about 6 inch spacing.

 

There is an aerator that you can hire from hire companies. This will put out small plugs of soil which you then just gather up and throw on the compost. The whole idea of aerating is to get some aeration underneath the soil - as in the summer with being walked on and compacted down, you want to try and alleviate this. By pulling the plugs out of the ground, you achieve this. By using a garden fork, all you are effectively doing is creating some holes, but further compacting the soil around the fork holes........much better to spend the £20, rent a machine for the day and do it right. We did this twice a year on our lawn at home, followed with a top dress of sand in the spring - and the lawn was to die for (along with proper feedings for the appropriate time of year)

 

If you don't rake leaves off your lawn you run the risk of the lawn dying back to bare earth, although it will return in the spring, it will take some time. It is not the easiest of jobs, as the leaves this time of year just keep on coming and coming. I tend to do mine once a fortnight, which sometimes goes to three weeks or so. There is nothing better than being out in a garden on a crisp autumn morning clearing leaves!