Did I over rake my lawn?
By Dsertrose
West Midlands,
United Kingdom 
Early this year, I set about some lawn maintenance. After reading up on the matter and realising how little I knew, I opted for raking my lawn as an alternative to hiring a professional dethatcher and forking it as opposed to aerating it. This was the cheaper alternative.
I collected several bags of grass and was surprised by how much 'yellow' grass was coming up. I figured that this could not have been a good thing and would only have been hindering helathy growth. It seemed endless, so I did put in some solid graft and sought to remove this dead grass (and compost it as noted leswhere in one of my posts).
I have since applied liquid fertiliser and been mowing/watering it appropriately and the lawn is greening up and looks healthier. However, there some balding patches and in some parts I am concerned that I raked up the grass itself too much, as the grass roots appear to be showing with the grass stemming from it.
Is this just a type of grass or is it a consequence of my zealous raking? If so, is there anything I can/should do to remedy the situation? I'm hoping to avoid unnecessary expenditure and that nature will come to my rescue over the coming months.
Please advise accordingly. Many thanks in advance for any responses.
** For further photos to aide diagnosis please click my user id**
11 May, 2009
Answers
It's possible you over applied the fertiliser - difficult to tell from the pictures, but this might be some fertiliser burning. If you want to throw a bit of seed around, remember there's a month or so you have to wait if you've applied lawn treatments - check your treatment packs. You could just wait and see if it recovers on its own, then reseed in the autumn where necessary.
12 May, 2009
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A good rake will do the lawn no harm you can over sow with new grass seed at very little cost
11 May, 2009