Unless you are Rihanna in her bad-ass grass hut dress, thatch is bad for you, especially in your lawn. We’re not talking about the accumulation of rebellious grass clippings, but a deeper, more perverse, layer of un-decomposed grass stems and roots near your soil’s surface. If you don’t deal with your thatch issue, your lawn may root into the thatch rather than the soil. Since thatch does not hold moisture, lawns rooted into thatch will not tolerate dry weather or cold temperatures, so prepare to kiss your verdant recreation area good-bye.
You can treat thatch with a special hand rake, rent a vertical mower, core it, and/or topdress it. The idea is to avoid de-thatching injuries and employ however many techniques necessary to help decay the thatch, so your lawn can root into nutrient-rich soil and be all that it can be. Do you know where you microorganisms are?
A particularly ‘thatchy’ lawn is most likely irremediable, so just roll it up like a rug when it dies out, and then pay a seamstress to make you a hot dress out of the detritus. Wear it to the Grammys, and after your first album goes platinum, you can afford a sod amelioration. Or just call Sonoma-Marin Arborists Inc.
