Lawn De-Thatcher

[leehljp]

Anyone here ever use a lawn dethatcher lawn mower blade?

I bought one from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It arrived yesterday and I mounted it on my push mower. Excellent for a separate job other than what it was intended. My mower is a 21 inch but the De-Thatcher blade that I ordered is 16". I was a little concerned that a 21"/22" blade might bog the engine down too much. The 16" did slow down in thick matted roots and grass, but not too much.

On one side of our yard, there is an alley way between our house and the neighbor, and it is paved with asphalt. We had a driveway added around our house years ago - through the back yard to the alleyway. The back yard driveway is asphalt and was installed at just above ground level with a slight crown for water to drain off. Over the years, dirt on the crowned edges along with grass mulch has built up to the point that about 12" of driveway edge on both sides were taken over by grass. I have sprayed it with round-up and other - twice a year for the last several years and finally decided to just scrape the dirt/grass mulch off. That is not easy for a 70+ year old.

Yesterday the de-thatcher arrived and I put it onto the push mower. It did a fantastic job but the springs did wear down by the end. I probably did close to 200 linear feet of de-thatching and it did well. One must have a mower with easy adjustable height for it to be effective. I will probably go over it again in a week or two. It did not get all the way down on the sloped edges, and that is what I hope to do on the next go-round. I have ordered two new sets of those de-thatching springs. I had to push slow for it to be most effective, but it did a little better that I was actually expecting.

Anyone use the de-thatcher on their mower?

[twistsol]

The lawn at our old house started out as a more than 100 year old grazing pasture for dairy cows. After mowing it for a few years and getting rid of most of the weeds, I used either that same dethatching blade or one extremely similar. I did use it in the spring before the grass had started growing and the soil here in SE Minnesota is mostly sand so the roots didn't have a great hold. I used it in place of one of the 3 blades on a 26HP diesel Kubota tractor, so while it took a long time to do the 2+ acres, there wasn't any bogging down of the mower.

The lawn was really far gone when I started and it looked close to bare dirt when I was done. The next day I went over the entire lawn with the sweeper on the back of the tractor , then a drag harrow, and finally followed it a slit seeder and within a few weeks had a much better looking lawn.

[ballard770]

For killing off grass and weeds, etc I have found that a solution of one quart white vinegar, about 1/4 cup salt and a tablespoon or so of dish detergent (Dove or similar) works well for me for the vegetation that grows between paver blocks in the entry/courtyard to our front door works just fine. It’s effective, cheap and you don’t see ads on tv about cancer caused by Roundup. A friend of mine said that he gets good results without adding salt and that is probably good as I think excess salt hinders plant growth in the event of desirable plants close to the spray.

[Jim Frye]

I had a neighbor that used one of those blade dethatchers. He must have done something wrong as it completely shredded the lawn when he used it. He only went a few feet with it before stopping. I suspect he had the mower set too low. I mulch mow exclusively, but only cut 1/4" to 1/2" inch off with each mow. My Ryobi rider leaves no noticeable cuttings after mowing. I also use a modified Gerry Baker method three times a year on the lawn and it seems to help break down the clippings as after six years, you don't get much of anything with a thatching rake. We even ran my neighbor's tow behind thatcher over the lawn and got almost nothing, especially compared to his lawn, which is the same age.