Aeration vs Dethatching: Which One Does Your Lawn Need?
One Goes After the Soil. The Other Goes After the Layer On Top of It.
People use these two words like they mean the same thing and then get talked into the wrong one.
Aeration pulls plugs out of the ground so water, air and fertilizer can get down to the roots. It is a soil problem fix.
Dethatching rips out the spongy layer of dead stems sitting between the green grass and the dirt. That is a surface problem fix.
Around here most yards need aeration. A lot fewer actually need dethatching, and doing it when you do not need it tears up a perfectly good lawn.
How to Tell Which One You Need
Get down on your knees and put your fingers in it. That is the test.
Measure the Thatch
Dig out a small wedge and look at the brown spongy layer between green growth and soil. Under half an inch is healthy and you leave it alone. Over three quarters of an inch and it is keeping water and fertilizer from getting through.
Feel How It Walks
A lawn with heavy thatch feels springy underfoot, almost like carpet padding. A compacted lawn feels hard and unforgiving. Two completely different feelings and two different jobs.
Most Yards Here Want Aeration
Heavy clay and scraped subdivision lots pack hard. That is the common problem in DeSoto County by a mile, and it is the one most people actually need done.
Bermuda Can Build Thatch
Bermuda spreads by runners so it does lay down thatch faster than some grasses, especially if it has been fed heavy and cut high. So dethatching is not never. It is just not automatic.
Dethatching Is Rough On a Lawn
It tears up a lot of turf on the way through. Only do it when it is actually growing hard enough to recover, and only if you measured and it needed it.
Aeration Helps Thatch Too
Pulling plugs brings soil up on top of the thatch layer, and the microbes in that soil break the thatch down. For borderline cases, aerating is the gentler way to get there.
What Fixes It
Core Aeration
Real plugs pulled out of the ground, timed for when bermuda is growing hard enough to fill the holes back in.
How Often Should You Aerate?
How to tell if your yard is a once-a-year lawn or a twice-a-year lawn.
Fertilization & Weed Control
Opening the soil only pays off if something is feeding the lawn once water and air can get down there.
Why Choose Lawn Jox?
Free Service Calls
Our job is to make sure your lawn is beautiful all season long. If you think there is something wrong with your lawn, call us. The inspection is free.
Right Size Equipment
Lawn Jox started with push mowers and we still have them. We use the right sized equipment for the right job, optimizing our time and lowering your cost.
Professional, Uniformed Crews
Just like your lawn, we have standards with our appearance as well. All of our lawn care technicians are uniformed and professional.
Fully Licensed & Insured
As a fully licensed & insured lawn care company in the state of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, we make sure your assets are protected while on your property.
Electronic Quotes & Invoicing
We save on paper and make it easy to pay. With our electronic system, you’ll receive quotes and invoices on your devices so you can accept bids and pay invoices all online.
No Contracts
Nothing to sign and no minimum term. Your program carries over each year so the spring pre-emergent is never missed, and you can stop any time by calling or texting the office.