Creating and maintaining a beautiful lawn takes a lot of time and dedication. Let’s face it, it also takes a lot of money to keep your lawn looking its best. Seeding, fertilizing (Starters, Turf Builders, Crabgrass Controls), weeding, aerating, cutting, trimming, treating for fungus, insects, grubs, pests, and watering all have a monetary and time cost associated with each task. However, one of the tasks I find to be most important is dethatching. Dethatching your lawn will help promote all of your other lawn care tasks and in the end save you time and money.


There are many methods for dethatching your lawn. The method I use has given my lawn great results. Generally, it’s good to start off the growing season with dethatching, but it’s never too late to start especially if you have never had your lawn dethatched.

How to Find a Dethatching System that Works for You

There are several types of dethatchers. First, are the hand held ones that look like a metal rake but instead of having teeth it has half moon shaped blades. Running these blades on your lawn back and forth will bring the dead grass to the top. You can also use a plastic leaf rake, but it may take you more time and energy. A second method is to use an automatic dethatcher. These are motorized systems that are designed to dig deeper in the ground, aerate, and seed. You can rent this type of dethatcher at Home Depot or your local hardware store. The third method, which is the one I use, for larger portions of my lawn is a pull behind dethatcher.

How to Use a Pull Behind Lawn Dethatcher

Step 1: Before using your dethatcher remove as much debris such as branches, rocks, and even tall grass.

Step 2: Cut your grass at a moderate height to allow the dethatcher to pull up the dead grass and allow room for a second grass cutting.

Note: If you don’t own a dethatching system that catches the dead grass use a lawn mower with a bagging system instead of raking. The amount of thatch is always more than expected and using the mower to pick up the dead grass will save you time and energy.

Step 3: Hook up your dethatcher to you riding lawn mower.

Step 4: Place and secure blocks or weights on your dethatcher if the design allows for it. This will help the dethatcher to stay firmly on the ground thus pulling more debris to the top of the lawn.

Note: If your lawn is to wet or too weak dethatching your lawn may cause fresh healthy grass to be pulled out of your lawn. Always test a small patch of your lawn first to determine if the right conditions exist for dethatching.

Step 5: Start dethatching at a moderate speed. Going too fast will cause the teeth of the dethatcher not to catch all of the debris.

Step 6: Remove debris from the teeth of the dethatcher. If the teeth of the dethatcher get to much dead grass or debris it will not work as efficiently as clean teeth.

Step 7: Evaluate and cleanup the thatch. A normal dethatching first run will yield a moderate level of thatch. It is o.k. to make more than one pass over the same lawn area. Just make sure the dethatcher isn’t pulling up healthy parts of your lawn.

Dethatching your lawn may cause you to second guess if you did the right thing because of all the mess and work it creates. However, doing so gives all the other tasks you do to your lawn extra benefits by allowing, for example grass seed or fertilizer to reach the dirt instead of lying on top of dead grass.

What are some lawn care tips and tricks you like to do for your lawn?