Quote:
Originally Posted by photo1902
I dethatched (manually, using a rake) two areas in my yard that the drought had taken its toll on. I was amazed how much dead grass I removed. Fast forward a month and a half, and you could never tell where the dead area was. It looks fantastic.
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Frankly doing it by hand does a far better,less damaging job than a machine. The proper tool is called a push pull rake or it is called a convex rake. If, you have a large lawn you will only do it once. If you have a small lawn it will seem far larger than it is a brutal job by hand.
RE: pulling the runners
There are commonly two types of grass in Villages lawns.
Empire zoyzia and St Augustine. If, you don't know which you have, the zoysia is finer textured and the st augustime is courser-wider blades. PLEASE DO NOT START THE MY GRASS IS BETTER THAN YOUR GRASS.
The zoyzia runners are underground and the St Augustine is above ground. You will likely pull out more st augustine then the zoyzia but it does not really matter-it will quickly grow back.
Either of the grass types are slowing down now for the winter (10/31/17) now is not a good time to dethatch because you will encourage weeds.