THATCH CONTROL LAWN SERVICES |
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| Maintaining a nice lawn requires proper fertilization and watering, good mowing practices, insect and disease control, and thatch control. It's easy for thatch to build up slowly in your lawn and go unnoticed until large brown patches begin to appear. These sorts of problem areas often show up during a summer drought when the lawn is under moisture stress. Donnan Landscape's lawn consultations over the past 30 years have indicated that excessive thatch build-up is the #1 cause of major lawn problems. Many of the "problem lawns" we are asked to evaluate each year have excessive thatch depths of 1-inch or more. Sodded bluegrass lawns in the Pittsburgh area need more frequent thatch control measures than most other types of lawns. By using our annual lawn maintenance procedures, especially core aeration, you can help prevent excessive thatch build-up that leads to costly lawn renovations. Once you have a thick thatch layer it is often necessary to strip off the old lawn and begin a new lawn from scratch. |
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Thatch Control |
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When? Spring or Fall |
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Core Aeration Aeration of your lawn once (fall) or twice (spring & fall) a year will help prevent thatch buildup, improve the penetration of fertilizer and lime into the root zone, and allow the soil to "breathe". We use machines that pull a soil plug or "core." The cores are left on the lawn surface to breakdown and usually disappear within three weeks. |
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Dethatching When thatch approaches or exceeds the safe "threshold" of 1/2-inch thick, it becomes necessary to employ physical thatch removal techniques. We use a flail-type "thatching" machine to remove a portion of the thatch layer. For lawns with extremely thick thatch (1-inch or more) we recommend stripping the thatch layer and starting a new lawn from bare soil. |
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Liming The third step in thatch control is making a light application of ground limestone. Even though your soil pH may be in the correct range, the thatch layer can be very acidic, reducing its tendency for natural breakdown. We use pelletized lime for our applications since it makes less mess and speeds our application.Donnan
Landscape also provides soil testing and recommends a soil test for
anyone serious about improving their lawn's long term quality. Soil test
results are usually back within 3 to 4 weeks. |
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Lawn renovation |
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When? Spring or Fall |
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Partial renovation In addition to the 3 procedures mentioned above in "Thatch Control", we also overseed your lawn with improved varieties of grass seed and apply a "starter" fertilizer. Depending on your individual needs, we may also fill-in depressions in the lawn with soil, and apply a mulch to help keep the grass seed moist. |
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Total renovation When thatch exceeds 1/2" thick, we recommend stripping the lawn down to bare soil with a sod-cutter and starting from "scratch" (bare soil).This speeds the renovation process and has the added benefit of seeding the lawn entirely with improved varieties of turfgrass. |
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Weeds and weedy grasses On many occasions, an old lawn is infested with tenacious weedy grasses that can only be removed with chemical controls (herbicides). In these instances, we begin the "Total Renovation" process with an herbicide application to remove the majority of undesirable grasses and weeds. |
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One of our Fall 1999 lawn renovation projects |
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Summary of Our Lawn Services |
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Contact Donnan Landscape for a quote on your lawn project today! |
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We also offer these services: |
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Landscape
Landscaping
Lawns
Shrubs
Trees
Hardscape |
