So would I @GardenerSuze. My lawn in France is full of wildflowers so a lot of it was still green in the heatwave. If I mow it it looks like a rough lawn, fine by me, if I let it grow a bit it's pretty and full of bees. Just can't walk barefoot in the clover
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
The opposite of my "don't scarify" policy is a scary picture like Plantminded's above. Apart from the hard work (though perhaps better than going to the gym) you seriously damage the lawn. You open up your lawn for an invasion of Nature's opportunists - weeds.
I thought it looked scary too at that stage! However, having been scarifying my lawn for many years I'm not worried. Already, after four days the lawn is greening up nicely and the blackbirds are enjoying the healthy worm population below.
Scarifying a lawn is just like pruning - removing decaying matter that inhibits a plant's normal growth. I grow many ornamental grasses and would never omit their annual prune in March to use chemicals to destroy the dead foliage instead.
If the lawn ever looks like it needs feeding, I use blood fish and bone in Spring, a natural, organic feed which won't destroy other plants, worms, soil microorganisms or other visitors to garden.
I think you make your own choices based on your knowledge and experience but also have to accept that others make their own choices.
The evidence is my near 30 years of experience and my qualifications.
Peat and peat-free also are dead vegetable material. It doesn't follow that thatch is bad, or that "dead" can't be turned quickly into "well-rotted" and therefore good.
Experience and qualifications are not the same as evidence.
As part of a young marketing team. we used to say about our salesmen: " one year's experience repeated 30 times."
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Coming a bit late in this discussion, but thought I would share my lawn scarifying experience. After years of scarifying by hand, decided I was definitely too old for enduring that hard work and got myself an electric scarifier (back in early 2020).
Due to the heatwave and dry weather this summer (and hose ban), my lawn was in a sorry state until the September rains. Currently it has largely recovered, except for a number of dry, thatchy (?) patches here and there. Today I decided to get the scarifier out. The result is not exactly satisfying so far, as can be seen on the attached pics. I guess I'll have to over-seed and water it hope for more autumn rainfalls...
Before scarifying
After scarifying
After scarifying close-up view. Now I have a chequered lawn.
I intoduced a sedge, carex pendula, to an area at the bottom of my garden. No financial cost, but ... It has now seeded itself everywhere. Some in good places, some everwhere else. With a July and October mow, I can keep it at 2 inches but looking very coarse.
Grass and grass-like varieties can be the worst weeds!
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Some thatch isn’t bad for your lawn but too much thatch is. If you have too much it stops water and nutrients getting to the roots and damages the grass. You can tell if you have too much because your lawn becomes spongy, it feels bouncy underfoot. But removing thatch, leaving about a 0.5 inch layer, will mean you have a healthier lawn more resilient to disease and summer heat. Compost rots down, thatch does not. That is the difference.
When my wife walks on a spongy lawn she says, "this is lovely, why isn't ours like this"?" I have found other people like a spongy lawn too.
I have springy underfelt under my carpets. Makes it feel luxurious. Makes the top carpet last longer as well. If this is what people want in a lawn, give it to them.
The only way that I know to create the effect is to have lots of spagnum moss, but that doessn't resist wear and goes yellow, then brown in the summer. Any ideas?
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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Scarifying a lawn is just like pruning - removing decaying matter that inhibits a plant's normal growth. I grow many ornamental grasses and would never omit their annual prune in March to use chemicals to destroy the dead foliage instead.
If the lawn ever looks like it needs feeding, I use blood fish and bone in Spring, a natural, organic feed which won't destroy other plants, worms, soil microorganisms or other visitors to garden.
I think you make your own choices based on your knowledge and experience but also have to accept that others make their own choices.
Experience and qualifications are not the same as evidence.
As part of a young marketing team. we used to say about our salesmen: " one year's experience repeated 30 times."
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Perhaps we need a definition of the word "lawn":
1. Decorative
1b. Perfectly green, uniform and level. Analogous to a Japanes raked sand "sea".
2. Sport. Must stand up to the rigours of the paricular sport: golf, football, children's play.
3. Wild flowers. Either low (daisies, clover ...) or long.
4. Exercise. A gym replacement.
5. Show- off. Just look at me on my ride-on mower. Or, just look at my high-tech robot.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I intoduced a sedge, carex pendula, to an area at the bottom of my garden. No financial cost, but ... It has now seeded itself everywhere. Some in good places, some everwhere else. With a July and October mow, I can keep it at 2 inches but looking very coarse.
Grass and grass-like varieties can be the worst weeds!
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I have springy underfelt under my carpets. Makes it feel luxurious. Makes the top carpet last longer as well. If this is what people want in a lawn, give it to them.
The only way that I know to create the effect is to have lots of spagnum moss, but that doessn't resist wear and goes yellow, then brown in the summer. Any ideas?
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."