Scarifying lawn before and after

How to scarify a lawn

Scarifiers have very sharp blades, so before you actually get going, it’s important to make sure they are correctly adjusted.

When to scarify and reseed lawn

If you scarify with the blades in the wrong position, you can badly damage your lawn.

Set the depth of your scarifier correctly

The right working depth to scarify at depends on the age of the lawn and the extent of matting.

As a rule, the blades should not rip the ground open but rather just lightly skim the soil. Keeping that in mind, adjust the blades so that they penetrate the ground to 2 to 3 mm, testing the depth on a small section of the lawn and readjusting if necessary.

A very neglected lawn may even handle 4 mm, but to avoid permanent damage, you should never scarify grass more deeply than that.

Scarifying: step by step

• Before scarifying, mow the lawn to a height of around 2 to 3 cm.
  
• Adjust the scarifying blades to the correct depth.
• Be sure not to scarify too deeply.
• Start by evenly working over the whole lawn in one direction, then turn 90 degrees and go across the whole area again.
• Move qui
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