Lawn dethatching and aeration are one of the deciding processes in a lawn that uses to recover them from dormancy, dead spots, and brown patches, improve mineral exchange, compact soil recovery, etc.
But they are slightly different from each other and similar in some sense.
I'll help you to understand their basics and compare them with various aspects.
Lawn dethatching Vs Aeration
But do you know exactly what are the basic processes of dethatching and aeration? Don't worry, I'll give you a brief on both these processes and we'll move on further to compare these two.
What is lawn dethatching?
Lawn dethatching is used to implement in lawns to remove dead grass, and clean mud between soil and grass, during the lawn grass recovery.
Lawn dethatching is necessary for no-drainage areas, moss, and to remove fungi.
What is lawn aeration?
Lawn aeration is used to improve the flow of air, water, and minerals through the soil to the roots. This method is very helpful with compacted soil. Also, it releases the stress of soil and improves the path for minerals and nutrients to flow to the roots.
Lawn aeration is useful in compacted soil, with less drainage, and brown patches.
Comparison of dethatching Vs aeration
Now, let's understand how different both of these processes are. Above, I mentioned the purpose and method of dethatching and aeration, but now, let's understand how these processes are different from each other.
Season of practice
Lawn aeration depends on what type of grass you have. Grasses like St Augustine grass, Bermuda, and Fescue need aeration every year in the late spring or early fall.
Dethatching is important in every late spring and early summer. In fall and early winter, it is unnecessary to disturb perennial lawn grasses.
Tools required
For aeration, an aeration machine or long-handle aeration tools are required. Apart from that, aeration is more effective after dethatching the lawn.
For dethatching, dethatching sharp reck, dethatching machine, and waste collecting bin are required.
Result oriented
Proper lawn aeration is very result oriented that it improves the flow of minerals, nutrients, and water in the soil. Hence, grassroots get improved.
Dethatching improves the lawn condition but overall dethatching doesn't improve compacted soil. It is a kind of subset of aeration in result orientation.
Difficulty level for beginners
Aeration is easier for beginners if they have a proper inspection of the soil. Without knowing the proper depth of aeration, it is ineffective but still easier for beginners. If you are doing it with the machine then it is not intense work but manually, it is intense to aerate the lawn with long handle tools.
Dethatching is not easy for beginners if they do it manually. Manual dethatching and manual collection of waste is a bit difficult but with machines, things become quite easier. But overall, dethatching is not too difficult but more work to complete it.
Is dethatching and aeration enough to recover lawn grass?
Well, if you think that only these processes are enough to recover your lawn grass then maybe you're wrong. Lawn grass needs proper fertilizer and reseeding to recover fully from dead patches, brown spots, and dormancy.
Dethatching and aeration both are initial processes of the road to recovery of lawn grass. Without taking further steps, you can't fully recover your lawn grass easily.
Neither single aeration nor dethatching are enough to recover lawn grass completely. Not even both at once because without feeding grass or maintaining moisture grass never fully recover.
Dethatching and aeration(DIY Vs companies)
One thing I admit is that it is different with the results and methods that companies do compare to DIY methods of lawn dethatching and aeration.
In a DIY method of aeration and dethatching, people forget to inspect the soil first. They ignore the grassroots depth and current conditions. Without having proper data, they just aerate and dethatch on time. It is not certainly a good way. If you include a proper turf slice inspection, then it is always better to target the problem at the right spot.
On the other side, companies cost you for these processes. Although they do it professionally with their experts. Many companies take lab inspection of the turf first and then apply the process. Also with the professional services, some of them take guarantee for recovering the grass properly.
In my personal opinion, if one can invest money and doesn't have any experience with lawns or grasses, then they should call the experts for their lawn dethatching and aeration.
But if you have a lawn for a very long time and you took several services in front of you from local companies, then it will not be bad to start things yourself. DIY methods are not bad if you know the right processes. It saves money and gives you a wonderful experience with a good workout.
Will dethatching remove weeds?
When we dethatch a lawn, it's already in compacted soil, has thick organic biomass(not decomposed as slime), and very non-habitable conditions for lawn grass recovery and reseeding a lawn.
For that, to appear on the growing surface, lawn dethatching is important. It does not directly remove the weeds. Actually, at the time of lawn dethatching, weeds don't appear completely in the lawn. You can't dethatch a lawn when there is green lawn grass with invaded weeds. The direct method of removing weeds is hand picking method or using weed killers.
How do you get rid of thatch naturally?
Getting rid of thatch naturally is not a short time process. Practically, thatch doesn't decompose easily, It takes time, sometimes more than a couple of months. But still, it is possible and will be more productive and fertile than garden soil.
First, you should make a layer of dry soil on the thatch. Use a dethatching tool to properly mix with the thatch. Now, let it decompose. You can also add some ash composting or ordinary manure in it to increase the process of decomposition. Earthworms also help to convert a thatch into organic biomass compost.