If “What’s Wrong with My Lawn?” is a question you’re asking yourself, then you’ve come to the right place. It’s troubling to notice when a lawn is not in good shape. You want beautiful green grass with hardly any weeds. And yet… Your turf isn’t thriving as it should be.
If that’s the case, then your lawn may be suffering from one of the following diseases, insects or other issues.
Q & A: Why Is My Lawn Grass Turning Brown?
There are many reasons why your lawn grass is turning brown, such as
The grass roots are shallow
There is a drought or a string of hot days
Your sprinkler system is not reaching all the parts of your lawn
You have pets urinating on your lawn
Various lawn diseases especially if you live in hot and humid climates
Too many weeds competing with turfgrass for nutrition and moisture
You’re using too much fertilizer, weed control or insect control
Different insects such as chinch bugs, grubs and webworms eating the roots of grass plants.
Cut back on the chemicals you’re using on your lawn.
Only water your lawn one to two times a week. Give it a deep soak, so it’s getting 1½” to 2” of water. A daily sprinkle only adds to lawn stress. If you get a least an inch or more of rain per week, you won’t need to water your lawn.
Is it dormant? If you have cool season grasses (Kentucky blue, fescues and ryegrass) or you live in an area that has cold winters, your lawn may be going into dormancy if there’s been a series of hot, dry days. The good news? Your grass isn’t dead—it’s just dormant.
Use a Lawn Roller to help smooth out your lawn.
So, if you enjoy walking on your lawn, you may be a bit unsteady if your yard has lumps and bumps. What makes it lumpy? Here are some reasons:
You have moles or voles tunneling underground
Tree roots that make the lawn unsteady
If you live in Colorado, it may be night crawlers and earthworms (you don’t want to kill these critters. It means you have healthy soil!).
You can solve your lumpy lawn problem by using a lawn roller to push down earthworm and mole/vole tunnels since they’re shallow. For tree roots, add mulch around the root collar without “volcanoing” the mulch around the trunk.
Q & A: Why Do I Have Moss in My Lawn?
There are a lot of reasons why you may have moss in your lawn, including
Acidic soil
Too much shade
Too much water or rain that isn’t draining correctly.
Aerating and dethatching can help with excessive moss growth.
Here are some solutions for correcting a mossy lawn:
Test your soil to see if it’s acidic.
Aerate and dethatch.
Check your yard drainage. If water doesn’t drain properly, grade the area or add drainage pipes to improve water absorption.
Prune trees and shrubs so that the mossy area gets more sun.
Q & A: Why Do I Have Brown Patches On My Lawn?
There are a few reasons why you have brown patches on your lawn grass. Depending on the time of year and where you’re located in the U.S., it could be a disease or drought.
Here are some reasons why you may have brown patches on your yard:
Dry spots due to sun and drought
Fungal diseases, such as a brown patch that affects lawns in hot, humid areas
Insects such as grubs and chinch bugs.
The solutions are the same as the one above:
Check your lawn sprinkler to make sure all the heads are popping up and reaching to the next spray head’s area.
Do a soil test to see what nutrients are missing and to test the pH of the soil.
Cut a square foot of turf away from the soil to see if you have any of the above insects chewing on grassroots.
You may just be cutting your grass too low. Allow it to grow longer and only take off one-third of the grass blade each time you mow. Raise your mower blades to take off less grass.
Make sure your mower has sharp blades each time you cut your grass. Dull blades give a ragged cut introducing diseases into your lawn grass
Your lawn may need to be aerated, dethatched and overseeded.
Use a spreader for overseeding, the timing of when to overseed depends on the region and type of grass in your lawn.
Cut back on the chemicals you’re using on your yard. If you live in a high snow state, your lawn may be damaged due to road salt. You may need to consult with a lawn professional or your local land grant university to solve that problem.
Only water your lawn one to two times a week. Give it a deep soak where it’s getting 1½” to 2” of water per week. A daily sprinkle only adds to lawn stress.
Is it dormant? If you have cool season grasses (Kentucky blue, fescues and ryegrass) or you live in an area that has cold winters, your lawn may be going into dormancy if there’s been a series of hot, dry days. The good news? Your grass isn’t dead—it’s just dormant.
You probably have a lot of thatch on your lawn. In addition to a spongey yard, you may also have brown patches and other turfgrass problems.
The solution? Dethatch your lawn to break up thatch and to allow water, air and sun to penetrate to the soil.
Q & A: Why Is My Lawn Dying?
First, make sure your lawn is dying and not in dormancy. There’s a big difference because dormant grass will green up again when the heat wave breaks and there are cooler temperatures and adequate rainfall.
Next, there are many reasons why you may have a dying lawn. The same conditions as the first question apply here. Before you do anything drastic, like a total lawn renovation, make sure you have the soil tested.
You may also want to call in a professional lawn care technician to look at your yard. If you think it’s one or more of the reasons listed above, you can try some of the solutions, such as aerating, dethatching, and properly irrigating your lawn.
Just keep in mind that it’s going to take a couple of months to get your lawn back to full health.
Again, if you don’t know why your lawn is dying, it’s time to call a professional.
Brinly-Hardy Lawn Care and Garden Attachments to the Rescue
At Brinly-Hardy, we have a variety of lawn care and garden attachments to turn your brown lawn into a green one again. Here are some tools to consider:
A healthy lawn starts with a passion the right tools. Brinly can help with that!
Our lawn sprayer for liquid fertilizer, weed and insect controls.
Our lawn sweeper that cleans up your large yard in no time.
Our tow and push spreaders to apply granular fertilizer, weed and pest controls as well as ice melt during the winter.
You can find our lawn care and garden attachments at these fine retailers:
