Scarification is primarily for pruning the grass plants. It also helps to control the thatch layer which, in turn discourages moss. And if you do get moss, scarification can help in the moss removal too. Hence it ‘spring cleans’ the lawn, removing unwanted material, reducing the conditions that diseases and moss love, and encouraging stronger grass spread and growth. Let’s see how each of these works:
PRUNING: As with many plants, lawn grasses require pruning to encourage healthy growth. Scarification slices through the sideways-growing shoots and stolons. And this is how bents and fescues (our native grasses), re-develop into thickening the sward, often without ever needing to overseed your lawn.
THATCH CONTROL: Scarification also helps to prevent the thatch layer from becoming too dense by raking up the loose organic debris.
MOSS CONTROL: By itself, scarifying does NOT kill moss, but it certainly helps to remove dead or dying moss. However, scarifying BEFORE applying moss control is also useful as it enables the moss control to reach to the bottom of the moss plants where it is the most effective.