I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
or leave it down on grass?
My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
When should I fertilize and aerate?

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:25:47 GMT, "mo" <vze2zg25 [at] verizon.net> wrote:

>I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
>or leave it down on grass?
>My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
>When should I fertilize and aerate?
>

Time to aerate is in the fall.

If you have over 1/2" thatch, I'd thatch during fall as well.
Fall is best time.

Fertilize in early spring with pre-emergent and 6 to
8 weeks later. Then again late fall with just
winterizer fertilizer. If you reseed, do that after
aeration. Don't forget to lime if needed. Lime can
be done anytime.

Thunder

Rolling Thunder <nospam [at] nospam.us> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:25:47 GMT, "mo" <vze2zg25 [at] verizon.net> wrote:
>
> >I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
> >or leave it down on grass?
> >My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
> >When should I fertilize and aerate?
> >
>
> Time to aerate is in the fall.
>
What's wrong with spring?

On 23 Mar 2006 21:35:45 GMT, Steveo <moparholic [at] hotmail.com> wrote:

>Rolling Thunder <nospam [at] nospam.us> wrote:
>> On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:25:47 GMT, "mo" <vze2zg25 [at] verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> >I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
>> >or leave it down on grass?
>> >My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
>> >When should I fertilize and aerate?
>> >
>>
>> Time to aerate is in the fall.
>>
>What's wrong with spring?

Come summer all the effort done during spring dies from heat and
water loss.

Rolling Thunder wrote:
> Steveo wrote:
>>Rolling Thunder wrote:
>>> mo wrote:
>>> >I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
>>> >or leave it down on grass?
>>> >My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
>>> >When should I fertilize and aerate?
>>> >
>>>
>>> Time to aerate is in the fall.
>>>
>>What's wrong with spring?
>
> Come summer all the effort done during spring dies from heat and
> water loss.
>

What dies? The holes you punch in the lawn, or the fertilizer? Or the person
who did the work?

If you mean that dethatching, aerating and fertilizing in the spring will
cause more of the lawn to die than if you hadn't done anything, I'd
disagree. The lawn that survived the winter has a root system that will
allow it to survive all but the most abnormal summer. Yes, it'll go dormant
if you don't water it, but it will go dormant if you don't water it
regardless of whether or not you dethatched, aerated and fertilized in the
spring.

Now if he were also to re-seed, the new grass may not have enough of a root
system to survive the summer without a lot of watering, but if the choices
are to re-seed and have it not survive, or leave it bare, I'd still seed in
the spring, though possibly with a mix that includes more annual grass, and
plan on doing more serious re-seeding in fall.

For a cool season lawn, detatching, aerating and fertilizing in the fall is
better than the spring. But spring is the second best time to do it. But if
the lawn is in bad enough shape, doing nothing until fall may only allow
things to get worse. Nothing is going to die because of dethatching,
aerating and fertilizing in the spring.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

Power Lawncare Tools for Spring Clean-up:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker/

Rolling Thunder <nospam [at] nospam.us> wrote:
> On 23 Mar 2006 21:35:45 GMT, Steveo <moparholic [at] hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >Rolling Thunder <nospam [at] nospam.us> wrote:
> >> On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:25:47 GMT, "mo" <vze2zg25 [at] verizon.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I live in NJ. Should I rake up all the thatch in early spring
> >> >or leave it down on grass?
> >> >My lawn is pretty healthy with very little weeds.
> >> >When should I fertilize and aerate?
> >> >
> >>
> >> Time to aerate is in the fall.
> >>
> >What's wrong with spring?
>
> Come summer all the effort done during spring dies from heat and
> water loss.
>
Hrmmm...I thought you might say something about the plugs not being in your
way during the growing season. Nice try anyway.. :)

--
30GB/month http://newsreader.com/

The normal small amount of material on a lawn is not thatch. Thatch is
a dense thick layer that most lawns do not have, so it;s unlikely he
needs to dethatch.

I agree that spring is fine to aerate. Not sure that fall vs spring is
that big of an issue.

For spring fertilizer, I'd wait till about 3rd week in April, then
apply a combo fertilizer/crab grass preventer. If you do it when the
forsythias blown, that is about optimal. Then fertilize again in early
sept, them mid-oct. Test/adjust PH as needed.

On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:38:24 -0800, "Warren" <wholzem [at] hotmail.com>
wrote:


>
>What dies? The holes you punch in the lawn, or the fertilizer? Or the person
>who did the work?
>
>If you mean that dethatching, aerating and fertilizing in the spring will
>cause more of the lawn to die than if you hadn't done anything, I'd
>disagree. The lawn that survived the winter has a root system that will
>allow it to survive all but the most abnormal summer. Yes, it'll go dormant
>if you don't water it, but it will go dormant if you don't water it
>regardless of whether or not you dethatched, aerated and fertilized in the
>spring.
>
>Now if he were also to re-seed, the new grass may not have enough of a root
>system to survive the summer without a lot of watering, but if the choices
>are to re-seed and have it not survive, or leave it bare, I'd still seed in
>the spring, though possibly with a mix that includes more annual grass, and
>plan on doing more serious re-seeding in fall.
>
>For a cool season lawn, detatching, aerating and fertilizing in the fall is
>better than the spring. But spring is the second best time to do it. But if
>the lawn is in bad enough shape, doing nothing until fall may only allow
>things to get worse. Nothing is going to die because of dethatching,
>aerating and fertilizing in the spring.

Aerating in the spring just opens things up for summer weeds. Wait
until fall to do aeration and reseeding.

Thunder