grass raking

[puckhoggy 0]

So I'm in charge of cutting the grass at my place and the past couple of years our front and backyard hasn't been looking as good as I want it to. Perhaps not raking it fully during the spring and fall seasons here in Canada.

Anyways I have a riding mower that has a vacuum attachment to suck up the grass that is cut while I am mowing. Just now I came aware of a rake attachment that can be connected to the mower to not have to manually rake the yard during the first spring and last fall months.

I was hoping someone who is a Hank hill type of guy or whatnot can tell me is there a certain design I should look for or setting I want with an attachment such as said above? Or a website I can be diected to.

Both my yard and I thank you for any input or advice.

THX

[Ltrain 0]

Hey Puckhoggy.

I think that "Rake" attachment is called a "de-thatching" attachment. I think depending on the brand of mower you have, the manufacturer probably sells an attachment made specifically for your model. They have machines made just for that purpose too. Since you only use them mainly in the early spring to pull out all the dead grass you might want to just go to a tool rental place and rent it for the day. The price of renting might be easier to swallow instead dropping down and buying a full mower attachment that you might use only 2 times a year. Also a dedicated de-thatching tool will usually do a much better job than an after thought attachment.

I used to work for a landscaper in my younger days. Hope that helps.

-L

[Bucky25 0]

We have one of those...works great.

[Ltrain 0]

BTW, a de-thatching attachment is not made for raking and picking up leaves. It's made for just that - de-thatching. There is a two fold benefit of manually raking the lawn: 1. you are removing the lawn of loose debris ie leaves, twigs, dead grass etc. 2. you are also de-thatching - helping oxygen to enter the roots creating healthy growth. A possible side benefit is building your muscles for a stonger wristshot ;)

You can however use the riding mower to suck up the debris from de-thatching. I wouldn't recommend it for heavier debris pickup though or else you'll end up with a bigger mess than when you started, not to mention you can mess up and dull the blades of your mower but it's always best to manually pick up the debris or use a blower to blow it out. If you got any more specific questions pm me.

[chippa13 1844]

You definitely want to de-thatch in the spring as part of your spring cleanup. During the year, however, as long as you are cutting the grass regularly and only cutting a small portion of the blade, you will want to leave grass clippings in the lawn.

[hamstercaster 2]

You definitely want to de-thatch in the spring as part of your spring cleanup. During the year, however, as long as you are cutting the grass regularly and only cutting a small portion of the blade, you will want to leave grass clippings in the lawn.

Partly true. You don't need to de-thatch in the spring if there isn't too much on your lawn. What is true for the summer is also true for after the winter. If your grass clippings dry up and decompose in the summer, it's also true in the fall which means that in the sprun you shouldn't have enough thatch on your lawn to have to de-thatch. I never de-thatch and my lawn is pretty healthy, at least the front lawn. the backyard is another story as my wife runs a daycare so it gets abused in many ways.

Leaving your clippings on the lawn when you mow it serve a few purposes. First the grass clippings will dry up and be decomposed by worms and other insects. Secondly, what's left of it will serve as nutrients to your lawn. An indirect benefit of all this is that as worms come to the surface to feed on the clippings and other stuff on your lawn. In the process they create tunnels which in turn aerate your lawn and also helps the water absobrtion by your lawn so you don't need to rent a machine to take plugs of grass/dirt to create those aeration tunnels. In the fall when the leaves fall from the trees, make sure to mow the lawn a last time after all the leaves have fallen. Ben then they are more often then not pretty dry and will decompose rather rapidly.

A few tricks to have a good lawn:

- Use more than one type of lawn cover, not just grass. This will help prevent diseases that can wipe your lawn in no time. The more types you have the better the chances of having a healthy lawn

- Live with the odd weed here and there like clover for exemple. Clover is disease resistant, requires next to no water to stay nice and green and grows really well. It almost looks like regular grass when freshly mowed before the clover leaves grow again

- Water one time a week for about two hours. This will give your lawn more than enough water for the week. It will also help with getting deeper roots which will then be more resistant to drought and bugs like those damn white worms (larves de hanneton in French). Watering often in small doses will force your roots to stay up to the surface eventually weakening your lawn

- Never take off more than 1/3 off when mowing

- Leave grass cuttings on your lawn to naturally feed it

- Avoid chemical fertilizers as much as possible. They are like steroïds for your lawn. The benefits are immediate but deteriorate your soil over time which you don't want

- Natural fertilizers are ok but should not be used alone

- You should had some good compost at least every other year when time and money permits. Add up to an inch of compost all over you lawn in order to replenish it. A rich soil is necessary for a lawn to be healthy year after year after year.

I think that is it for now ;)

[puckhoggy 0]

Hey guys,

thanks for all the comments and advice. This has helped a lot. I didnt know I should leave grass clipping around the lawn. This is part because whenever I mow, the riding mower shoots all the clipping to one side. It's not a mulcher where it shoots out around the mower. So that's why I use that vacuum attachment on the mower.

And right now im second guessing if i should dethatch, but I know my yard has never been through the process, so I guess it might be alright too....?

[chippa13 1844]

Check your lawn to see how much thatch you have down at the base of your grass blades. If there is quite a build up then you should thatch, if there isn't much then you could be alright not to.