On Aug 14, 1:46*pm, "Spider" wrote:
"aquachimp" wrote in message

...



For as long as I can recall I held that Autumn is the best time to
scarify a lawn, and even experience one all to memorable spring time
scarifying long-term disaster, but I couldn't remember the technical
reasons; so, out of curiosity I went looking; I found some advice here
that dates back to 2002.

The advice given then upheld the Autumn preference adding that in
autumn the grass is producing side shoots (tillering) and that in
spring scarifying removes new growth, stunting growth, allowing gaps
between grass to get colonised by weeds.

On average, lawn-care, garden help sites also give autumn as the best
time, but with one notable exception, a lawn-care service provider.
And it worth mentioning that from observation, a greater number of
people seem to *wrongly think spring time is better;

I'll assume the reason why it's best to scarify in autumn is that
though surely it would also remove the side shoots, there wont be so
much weed growth in winter that the new gtrimmed growth spurt in
spring will be able to handle unchecked;

Anyhow, seeing as it's coming to that time of year some of you might
be interested to know about stuff like this.

I suspect another reason for doing it in spring

Spring? Autumn surely?
Especially since you mention it as being "another" reason for doing
it, when I hadn't offered a reason for doing it in spring..

is that the lawn tends to be
drier then; that certainly applies to mine. *Raking mine when it is at all
damp means pulling out the grass as well as the thatch. *It then seems to
follow that, with the lawn less choked, spring is a good time to sow seed
when it's less likely to be cut back by frost.

I confess I'm guilty of not scarifying, or aerating, my lawn for a couple of
years. *It's beginning to show :~(.

Spider