Dethatching
 

Any recommendations for someone who does dethatching of St Augustine lawns? I live south of SR44.

Fertigator.
Jus had mine done.

I have been told many times to NOT dethatch the lawn, so IMHO, contact Master Gardener and ask the experts.

I have Empire Zoysia. Depending on what you read, it says to do it every three years.
Confession, I did mine after five years. I bought one of those inexpensive plug in type machines for about $100. It does come with a collector but it is way too small for the amount of material that came out of my lawn. My 5,000 sq foot lawn I filled 20 of those huge paper bags sold everywhere for garden waste. To collect the removed hay, straw we used two of the fan type rakes. You use them like salad forks to pick up the removed material.

As to de-thatching St Augustine. The Zoysia spreads by underground runners. St Augustine by above ground runners. Typically the mowers around here will drop St Augustine into a Zoysia lawn. The de-thatcher as a side benefit ripped out the St Augustine and left the Zoysia.

Point, I would check with cooperative extension for advice it is should be done and how often. If, I recall April is the best time to do this. You want your lawn growing to quickly fill in and prevent opening up your lawn to weeds.

Adam's Earth in Summerfield.