Thatch is an interwoven layer of dead and living plant materials that lies between the grass and the soil beneath. Leaves falling on your lawn or mowing without using a catcher can greatly increase the rate of which your thatch builds.

What To Do

While gardening, you can prevent thatch from building by mowing with a catcher or blowing off any leaves before they begin breaking down.  However, if you already have a build-up, there are several options that anyone can take to dethatch their yard.

The most common practice is simply taking a rake and vigorously raking through the grass to pull up the dead thatch beneath. This is cheap and relatively easy to do but can consume both time and energy depending on your yard. There are also mechanical means such as vertical mowers and power rakes, which use vertical blades to cut through and pull up the thatch build up.

You should only ever dethatch a lawn in dry conditions during cool weather, otherwise you could seriously damage your lawn.

There are also certain chemical products that destroy the dead thatch matter without affecting your grass. A personal recommendation is Earthlife Breakdown. You simply need to mix it in with water and spray it across your lawn. If you mix 50ml with 1 litre of water, you can cover up to 20 square metres of yard. 

A little-known fact about this particular product is that it contains a natural acid that breaks down the weed seed germinating node. While using Earthlife Breakdown on a lawn you can see a reduction of weeds of up to 80 per cent!