| Should I be areating or dethatching my St. Augustine grass. It is starting to roll and is very difficult to push mow. |
| Sounds like it's time. Dethatching is a practice used on mostly warm-season lawns that produce heavy woven mats of stolons or runners. It's done in spring before the lawn gets off to a new start. The steps, in order, are: 1) scalping -- setting the mower as low as it will go and taking the grass to within 1/2 inch of the ground; 2) dethatching -- using a rented machine that rakes the mat of runners right out (hand dethatchers are available but they are not efficient and can wear out the best of us if the lawn is large). The lawn will fill in as the summer progresses. You missed the early opportunity but you can still dethatch now. It will just take a little longer for your turf to fill in. Good luck with your lawn. |
