A spot of advice please

Hi,

Firstly, I've found this site really helpful and lots of people have been really generous with their help and advice and I feel like I've learnt a lot by read, asking and also by buying "The Lawn Expert" which has also helped to understand a lot more. For all the help and advice I wanted to say a massive thanks.

A couple of things I wanted to find out are the following. The book seems to suggest that "a bit of thatch is a good thing" - ok, that's fine. And that in spring (now) it's best to rake out a small amount of thatch rather than scarify. Is that generally correct or as in my case, I feel there is too much thatch currently in my lawn is ok to do it? I guess the "stress to the plant" scarifying at the start of the season and at the end of the season is a lot for it to deal with? Is that what they are getting at?

I noticed this morning that a lawn company turned up to "fix" their lawn. I say fix because their lawn is looking fairly rough at the moment with lots of brown patches. The guy used his eliet petrol drive machine to scarify. I understand that many of these machines do more than just "hook" and the "cut" into the lawn too? Is this better than my £100 electric machine that I bought? Or can I achieve similar results in other ways?

I'd also like to try to get a handle on what order things can be done. E.g. cutting, scarify, forking (hollow/solid tines), feeding, fertiliser, moss control and weed control. What is the order and how many days do you leave in between etc?

Again, thanks for all the help and advice you give on this site.

 

Chris
I would

• Close cut your lawn
• feed lawn ( I always use liquid feed )
• 2 days later scarify , your claw scarifier will be fine . Scarify in two directions.
• When night temps start getting above 7°c , reseed your lawn ( I am waiting until after the bank holiday )
• I then lightly top dress with a mix of top soil , MCP and sharp sand , with a touch of blood fish and bone meal in it .
• Water reseeded areas if dry and Wait for grass seed to germinate - Now that is another story !

 

Chris the Eliet is the machine I use and it's very good, not just as its powerful, blade setups but it's very easy to look after.
It's designed to have enough power with the right blade setup to cut in but maintain blade speed and the blades are very well designed and keep their edge. It's also has variable height adjustment so you can get the depth spot on.
Normally you tend to scarifying harder in the Autumn and then a light one in the spring. Early Autumn scarifying means the lawn has a nice period to recover and in the Spring you want the lawn to recover very quickly so that its in good shape for the season.
The Eliet if used say Autumn time then Spring will leave a clean finish compared to domestic electric machines. It slices clean and does not rip the turf.
Now it depends on the lawn with regards to scarifying before or after a feed. some feed before, some feed after, I tend to look at the condition of the lawn and then decide.
One tip is if you are using a granular feed and you feed first, wait a good 2 weeks depending on weather. The reason being is that fertiliser is very harsh on metal so you don't want that on moving parts without cleaning, the fertiliser needs time to break down and for the grass to react.
Yes you want thatch in your lawn but you don't want excessive amounts. There are different types of thatch but to keep it simple you just need to remove a good percentage without hammering the turf. Common mistakes is blades set too deep fit machine and running over the lawn non stop as they can see rubbish coming up and only when cleared do they realise the mess the lawn is in.
Scarifying also has other benefits when used with other methods that produce a good standard lawn.
As for hand raking, yes it's ok but will never be in the same league as a good machine as hand raking is more aimed for surface work. Nothing wrong with raking but my word it's hard work and blister time.