Home-Built Wood “Dethatcher”

Home-Built Wood “Dethatcher” FARM HOME Miscellaneous “I’m sending you photos of the homemade wooden dethatcher I pull behind my Deere 300 garden tractor I use it to smooth out the ground before I plant grass seed to start a new lawn ” says 89-year-old Robert Koch of Montrose Colo He made the 3-ft wide by 2-ft deep dethatcher by bolting together 2 by 6’s and 2 by 8’s with one 2 by 8 on front and one on back It attaches to the tractor with a pair of chains that hook onto a trailer hitch on the tractor He drilled a series of holes a couple inches apart into the front board then hammered square concrete nails into them The nails extend about 2 in below the board “I make a pass with the dethatcher to loosen the soil Then after I spread grass seed I make a second pass The nails turn the soil over and bury the seeds and the 2 by 8 on back smooths out the ground ” says Koch He says the nails he used run straight down and tend to plug up with grass They’re also square which eventually caused the board to crack “I had to screw a 1 by 6 board over the crack to keep the nails from falling out If I did it over I’d use 3-in round concrete nails and angle them backward so they’d break up the soil without picking up grass ” notes Koch Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Robert Koch 14468 Arabian Ct Montrose Colo 81403 ph 970 240-8445

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