Not that anyone cares, but,
If I can get the mower on top of it, I mulch it. Limbs, branchs,
dead animals....everything. In the fall I mow the leaves and
pine straw. If the pine straw still is too much, I mow it again.
Quicker and easier then rakeing and bagging. The leaves have
very little detritus left after a mow or two. I have never had a
thatch problem. I have several trees in my yard and I have never
used a dethatcher.
My neighbor uses one of those hole punching dethatchers and has
built in sprinkler system and her yard is not that much nicer
than mine.
I think the thatch problem is over rated.
B


On 19 Apr 2005 05:00:05 -0700, wrote:

On my lawn, which is surrounded by forest on 3 sides, I've always
removed most leaves by blowing/raking, but I'd say I probably mulch up
about 20% or so with a mower while continuing to cut it through
November. I live in NJ and never had a problem because of it and my
lawn looks great. This practice will not lead to thatch, which is
something many people seem to worry about, but few lawns actually
suffer from. The finely ground up leaf material quickly decomposes and
is beneficial to the soil. The only way this would create a problem is
if there is so much of it that it actually covers the grass and acts