Scarifying A VERY THICK Thatchy Lawn 

Great to see you back Shaun It’s been a v tough time for you Often thought about how you were Keep up the good work

I can’t tell you how much you have inspired me…. To get a gardener 😅

We really need guys like you in Texas. You do things properly in multiple steps and you give good reasons for what you do.

Jesus that’s bad! 😅 never seen thatch like that before love to see the update on this in a few weeks

Never seen so much thatch come out a lawn. Job well done. I watch alot of gardening lawn jobs and I gotta say you are by far the best.

What a great job. I certainly would like to see what it looks like now. Thank you for all your hard work.

Wow, Shaun...that is a lot of thatch! My lawn is 60-percent fescue, 20-percent rye grass, and 20-percent KBG. When I scarified last year, not even six months after an aggressive renovation, the amount of thatch removed was unexpected. I used the shallowest setting on the scarifier (same as yours) so it just cut into the soil. The lawn looked a little worse than the lawn in this video, but as you said, six weeks later it was better than before. Even today, I can still easily part the grass and see soil.

I bought a scarifying rake (don't have the space for an electric/petrol one) and I did it yesterday and was taking up so much dead grass and thatch that I wouldn't have even guessed was there - but like you said, I'm horrified by the state of the garden at the minute! Very brown and muddy, especially with the weather. Took the opportunity to aerate and overseed too so hopefully in 5 weeks, it'll start looking better...!

That was an insane amount of thatch!!! Haha super satisfying video to watch all the thatch surface 😂

Great video, really professional.

Great job. I've just scarified our lawn. Loads and loads came off it. Mostly moss. I've seeded a few areas with seed mixed with sand. Should I use a liquid fertiliser now or when. It looks like yours at the moment so cannot wait for it to recover. Thanks for great videos. Cheers.

thanks mate. have a great week. best wishes from Liverpool

I’m always amazed how much nasty stuff comes out of my Nice green lawn. Moss was bad this year due to the wettest autumn and longest winter I can recall. Just done it this weekend. Filled 3 bins. Satisfying, but raking it up takes hours. I’m going to do it twice a year from now on. However I’m concerned if I do it in September, it will be bare and won’t thicken before winter and the moss will dominate the bare parts.

The issue I have is, ‘yeah it looks rough - for 6 weeks’ it’ll look rough into the summer

The best Gardner on RU-vid to watch. After watching your videos i did my very first scarifying, Aerating, Over seeding & granule fertilising last year on my small front lawn my turf has been down 3 years. I tried to follow your advice the best i could what Is left of the original grass looks lovely and green. Most of the seeds germinated and the grass was looking lovely and thick. I left the seeds for 4 weeks after first sign of germinating before cutting around One-third each time. After 2 or 3 cuts most of the new grass started to deplete. I watered the grass most days in the early evening. (Any advice would be appreciated) Ps: I have found we get a lot of worm castings in the lawn. We get the morning sun on the grass in the afternoon it goes in the back garden. Fertiliser Ivisons 11-5-5 all season lawn boost pro mini granular. I put a small amount of fertiliser down about 2 months after to see if it would help it made the original grass look more healthy and greener. But this time most of the new grass was gone. ...Grass seed i used.. 50% Creeping Red fescue 50% Dwarf Amenity Perennial Ryegrass

Great video. I laid a new lawn in November ‘23 - when is the best time to scarify a newly laid lawn? The lawn so far is in good shape - I wasn’t sure whether I should wait a certain amount of time before its first scarify? Many thanks in advance

How on earth have you managed to find anywhere dry enough round your area to be scarifying :D my poor lawn has been a bog since december

Great tutorial! If my lawn had weeds last summer, can I now scarify my lawn this spring? Or will I be increasing the amount of weeds.

The more I look at my lawn, and then your videos, but more I’m tempted to just hire you to do it

Woah!!!! That's the most I've ever seen taken out. That's about 3xtimes the amount I normally take out

Great video. My garden needs the same treatment. What scarifier would you recommend purchasing? And maybe a 2nd option if the first is too expensive. 😂😂 Thanks

What is your opinion on pre-germinating the seeds prior to spreading them? I’m about to overseed my lawn and considering trying pre-germinating them

Thanks for another great video. After such a scarifying job, do you need to spray with something to keep the moss from spreading? I can imagine the scarifyier must spread some moss spores around the lawn. Would it be good to spray with Iron Sulphate, or what would you recommend?

Bought a scarifier a few months ago and haven't braved it yet - its a battery powered one (Einhell, needs 2 batteries) - It feels quite daunting, like I'm going to ruin the garden, it seems like we have a lot of thatch and moss but I'm not sure how to confirm, might be best flogging the scarifier and getting a professional in

Great video

Our lawn was laid with turf in July 2023. It’s already covered with a lot of yellow dead grass. I think it needs scarifying. If I were to scarify in April this year, is that too soon to scarify , based on the turf being laid last July?

Gota say, That looked like the bottom half of my rear lawn, But with more grass..lol

What's the best way to raise the level of an existing lawn? I'm talking maybe 6 inches. Not all of it though. Just the bottom end roughly 1.5x5m. Cant figure out the best way to go about this

Wow, insane the amount of old grass that was in the one piece. Great job !!!!

Add mycorrhizae and plant grade molasses to the garden/lawn to stimulate benifitial fungus growth. The worms will love it as well, and multiply. Both will fretilize the lawn. Also consider raising the deck height to increase shade and moisture in the lawn. It will stand tall, and never need another round of fertilizer.

What do you do with the six inch 'picture frame' of unscarified turf around the edge? Surely that's just going to get higher with more thatch and look silly.

Just did my moss lawn and there is nothing left after the wettest winter in my experience. So it’s been treated with iron and feed and now top soul n seed.

Hi, im a self employed maintenance gardener in cornwall. I have not been doing a lot of grass as i know its a lot of work to keep nice. I have however taken on a few lawns from some of my elderly customers who cant do it themselves anymore. I have found that just cutting once a fortnight is making these areas look really bad. Lots of moss, pale grass weeds etc. I use a rotary mower. I have just invested in a new scarifier and will be telling my customers that more work needs to be done to these lawns as they are not doing my self esteem or reputation any good as they are. Its a bit scarry tearing up someone's lawn and turning it from green to brown both for them and myself. Any tips would be gratefully received. I have a fertilizer spinner and knapsack spry on the way and some seed, fertilizer and iron from a local landscaper who has given up trading. Help! Lol Ps I really am enjoying watching your videos and I'm look forward to being able to get a lawn looking as good as some of yours.

What sort of depth do you set your scarifier for this? Awesome vids by the way

Im a new sub to the channel mate and was wondering if i could get some advice, please 🙏 My back garden is in desperate need of scarifying, which im going to tackle next week. Its very mossy in some areas, would you recommend putting moss killer down first then scarifying a week or so later?

For a DIYer whats a good way to dispose of all the clippings?

Blimey, that keeps you fit!

Wow! That’s a lot of dead grass, do you get the same problem if you use a dwarf rye grass seed for your lawn

Do you ever top dress with compost as a type of feed? By the way, you really gave that spongy lawn a good seeing to!

looking forward to the after visit :)

I religiously do ours twice a yr. Still i still bring masses out!! In autumn before the 1st leaf drop - i chaff the first leaf drop with the mower. The rest is sliced n diced to put into compost bins. The 2nd is usually mid to late feb then i top feed with compost n seed.

If I did this a lot I’d have to get myself one of those big outdoor vacuums, hoover up all the stuff it pulls up.

Great video. Can you get decent diy scarifiers?

In the USA we call it “dethatching}

Should i spray liquid iron after scarifying and also what fertiliser best to use after scarifying ?

Great job. What's the name of the scarifier machine?

Nice work you got it to a good start off point,👍👍now a question 🙋‍♂️ can you asked who is singing in Manchester too stop,so as I can get a dry day or Couple of days to do the same to my Lawn😂 ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️👍👍👍👍👍👍🇬🇧🍀

My scarifier has two cartridges. One has metal blades and the other has sprung tines. Is it best to use the the blades by the looks of this video? When should the tine one be used?

some machines are called lawn dethatcher others scarifier.. is there a difference?

done my brother in laws lawn and it was just like that.

I’m just about to buy a house with a neglected garden. The lawn runs to about 1.5 acres and is a bit like the one in this video but worse. Very mossy - west of Scotland so probably a wetter climate. I’m seriously thinking of getting in a man with a big machine and clearing the lot then re-seeing. Thoughts?

That is most material pulled up from one pass I have ever seen. Good god

So you mentioned how that lawn needed it at least once or twice per year. If you do it twice and it takes 6 weeks to not look dead and disgusting, that would be 3 months out of the year with a horrendous looking lawn. I'm not sure I'm understanding why anyone would want that. Edit: I should've finished the video before commenting!

I have never de thatched my lawn ever. 30 years and it comes in green every year.

What do you do with all the bags of waste?

I always fertilise straight after the clearing up mow, grass always recovers quicker, do you agree?

I've never seen so much moss come up. How much would you charge for scarifying a lawn of this size?

Love abit of scarifying some what therapeutic and never surprises me how much can come out of a lawn really need to get on and get some done down in the south will try to film some I think

Hi..can I scarifying on damp soil/grass 🤔

Wow I thought I got a lot of thatch out of my lawn

30 cm of snow this week. Snowing like crazy here at 4 in the morning. I could say this lawn looks rough. I won't because mine is covered in snow! 🇨🇦

Can you imagine just leaving the thatch on there 😂😂😂

Where do you buy your nail varnish? 😂

Wow a sea of thatch! 😅

Why arent scarifiers power driven?

New scarifier? That’s amazing how much comes out

Was she related to William....Thatcher?

How come you got shut of the stihl scarifier?

I’m eating a cheeseburger if anybody was wondering.

Mine is like that only it's not big enough to justify a powered scarifier so I do it with the wolf garten rake, swearing in German for hours!

Dang! That's some serious thatch going on there.

Good lord, the amount of material that came out was insane, personnaly this is why i strongly dislike fescue, rye and bluegrass for me.. for now. Ill be off to warm season grasses shortly

Bet that was satisfying to do

Wow thats alot of thatch, would love some after videos if your near by, but appreciate they could be a one off visit.

I've no idea why people put fescue down, it always causes problems with thatch and dries out in summer because the grass isn't rooted into the earth but into a thatch layer. Ryegrass looks just as good and doesn't have this same problem with thatch and doesn't dry out as quickly.

WOW, that was a LOT of thatch. Did she ask "what have you done with my lawn" when she popped out? 🤣

Why didn’t you scalp it first?

If your smart you can get the microbes to do the hard work 4 u.

send some sun over please.rained off here 😚

Would much rather have heard the machine than this terrible music. Greetings

6 weeks of a lawn looking like hell. Surprised people are willing to do this. I get the reason but makes you wonder if its worth planting that type of grass. Seems silly to pay that much money for all the maintenance and down time

If you just got a mulching blade(preferred) or bagger you wouldn't have this huge thatch issue

This is the worst I’ve seen. Awesome job!