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What is a Power rake?
Here in the Abbotsford, one of the most recommended solutions to help your lawn fight the various problems that can arise, like the destructive chafer beetle or thick lawn-choking moss, is a power rake. Power raking is an essential step that will help the long term health of your lawn. Read on to find out if a power rake is the right solution for you!
Power rake for Controlling Moss in Abbotsford
In the Abbotsford, our rainforest-like climate brings months of rain, lawns here tend to develop moss quite heavily. Moss is a dense green mat made of flowerless plants that clump and grow across your lawn. Moss thrives and grows in shaded, damp areas where water might pool or rain comes for weeks at a time.
Power rake for Controlling Thatch
Although similar to moss, thatch is also a challenge for us living in the Abbotsford. Less deep and less thick and is made of the decaying debris that your lawn can’t decompose fast enough. The problem with both thatch and moss is that they create a layer on top of the roots of your grass that makes it nearly impossible for the essentials to reach your lawn. Moss and thatch can effectively block your roots from having access to water, air and nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If your lawn can’t access what it needs, it will always struggle. Plus, a mossy lawn isn’t necessarily the most appealing look for a yard.
Aeration, dethatch or both?
Here in Abbotsford, while an aeration is a good first step (read here to learn about aeration), it will mostly help with drainage problems by loosening up the soil and removing cores that can allow the remaining soil to spread into and fill out. To get rid of the moss and thatch, you’ll want to do a power rake.
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Power Rake or Dethatcher in Abbotsford?
The difference between these two methods is not much as they both deal with the same problem – built up debris on top of your lawn. However, the difference is in the depth of debris you wish to remove. Dethatchers are smaller, closer in size to your average mower, and aim to remove just a thin layer of thatch from your lawn. This would be good if you’ve tested the depth of your thatch and found that it is deep enough to be concerned, but not so thick that it’s a serious problem. Here in Abbotsford, most landscape service providers do power rakes.
A power rake on the other hand uses rotating blades that more aggressively rip up the deeper layers of thatch and, more importantly for our concerns, moss. A power rake is not designed to get 100% of the moss, attempting to remove all the moss is ill-advised and will most likely leave your lawn almost entirely stripped and bare. The key here is to get rid of as much moss without damaging your lawn beyond repair. Because these blades go deeper than a dethatching machine would go, it is able to lift up more of the moss from your lawn. In Abbotsford, it’s a delicate balance because the rainforest climate brings heavy rains that helps to grow thick layers of moss. However, this is the catch. If you go too deep, you’re also going to tear up the living root systems of your turf and this will be very hard to repair, requiring substantial overseeding. Another problem is that if your moss is very thick, there might not even be grass growing underneath. This will make it hard to determine the effectiveness of your power rake without prior expertise, but if you choose to do a power rake on your own, err on the side of caution with how deep you go.
When to Power Rake?
In Abbotsford, the ideal time to do a power rake is before entering peak growing season, so early spring (once the grass has already started to grow). You can still do a power rake later into the spring and sometimes even into the summer, but you need to make sure that whatever the conditions are, they are good enough to promote quick growth of grass and a speedy recovery in turn. Otherwise you might find yourself doing a power rake in the summer right before a lawn killing drought happens.
YOU are definitely not done
Now that we’ve performed a power rake on your lawn, there’s still a lot of work to do.. The moss and thatch are gone but what’s next?
Once all of the moss, thatch and debris has been raked and removed, it’s time to start hauling in your top-soil. Make sure you know what turf is growing on your lawn and what top-soil is best for it or best for the region you live in. You’ll notice that there will be bare spots, especially if you had a thick layer of moss on top. The goal is to spread a thin layer of top-dress (or top-soil) that will cover any exposed roots and low spots, but that won’t choke the roots either. You’ll want to avoid packing it down so that the roots can breathe as well. Rake it out lightly to help create a smooth, thin layer.
After this, we like to add a layer of grass seed to our top-soil to help repair any patches of stripped roots. A power rake is a powerful machine and if your lawn is filled with bumps and dips, it’s easy to go too deep. Adding grass seed is a necessary step to help ensure a proper recovery happens, whether from bare spots left from the moss or those unfortunate bumps and dips.
After the Power Rake in Abbotsford
Next, it’s time to add your nutrients! We always add fertilizer and lime treatment to our power-rakes to ensure that your lawn gets nourished! In Abbotsford, the rain never stops, but with the pollutants from the rain, it can easily make your lawn too acidic to receive nutrients which is why we always include lime treatment with any fertilizer service. A power rake is an aggressive process that can put stress on your lawn. Without adding nutrients to help speed the recovery of your lawn, it will be vulnerable to diseases and other pesky problems.
The last thing you’ll want to do after is water! In Abbotsford, you don’t have to worry about getting enough water most of the year. You don’t necessarily have to water right away, but the quicker you can get the nutrients and water into your soil, the better. Just make sure that if you wait, you keep a consistent watering schedule the minute the first rainfall happens. As soon as the seeds and nutrients are wet, you need to make sure your lawn is consistently cared for to ensure a healthy recovery.
In Abbotsford, adding a power rake to your lawn care list is important to help fight moss. Hopefully this guide has shed some light on why, when, and how to do a power rake. Although not the most complicated of yard tasks, this one is a task that requires some expertise to ensure that you don’t accidentally damage your lawn in the process. We would highly encourage you to give us a call and have us provide you a free quote for power raking services! With our local expertise, our franchisees will help you get the best out of your power rake!
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