How can I fix the brown spots on the lawn?
by
Dee
+2
We built a new home a year ago, sod was planted and the grass was beautiful. The lot itself has that terrible clay underneath to begin with and had to amend our soil for our planting. It was recommended that clay soil is very acidic and to sprinkle lime and fertilizer. It grew beautifully for awhile and the last mow was cut down a little too short we think. Therefore these ugly brown spots surfaced up throughout the lawn, both front and back. We've noticed our neighbor had good soil put down on their brown lawn and it has returned nice green grass for one thing. Any remedies or suggestions would be very helpful for us to try. Thank you.
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The clay soil should have been amended with topsoil, peat moss , and compost before the sod was put down. The roots are starving for nutrients. You can spread topsoil over the lawn but not cover it up. You should see it perk up. Once the soil has settled down add some more one more time. Basically you'd be slowly amending the clay.
It wouldnt hurt to add some grass on top of soil before applying second layer lof topsoil
Firstly, cut your grass between 2.5 - 3". There are many reasons to do this, including less shock, less weed invasion, less susceptible to disease and heat damage, better drought control, deeper roots, etc. Mowing short to reduce time to mow again is a myth and can seriously damage the turf.
Secondly, if all was well until now, you may have another problem. This is June and June bug grubs are maturing and coming out of the soil. They eat the roots of the grass, among other things. I also moved to new house, put in new lawn and all was well until now. I also noticed a high amount of grubs in the soil during some landscaping improvements. I just finished treating mine with Milky Spore Powder. Super easy. There are other methods.
Third, do add amendments over the top of the turf, but not too thick. Water it in after applying. I would use compost or composted manure. Go for high quality, most box store top soil is low quality soil. You can find sources for this popping up on Craig's list. I've sourced from Craig's in 3 different states, it's always available if you watch for it. You can buy at box store if in a hurry, but start finding a good source on Craig's for the future.
1 - So, stop scalping your lawn.
2 - Check for grubs and treat if necessary.
3 - Add high quality top dressing several times a year until desired result.
Thank you all so much for your recommendations. We will try them and hope to see some good results.
stop cutting so short it kills the grass especially sod, using a good compost such as bagged cow manure is best instead of adding a bunch of un-needed chemicals treatments that you do not know if you need until you test the soil ; adding redworms to ground (Uncle jims worm farm) for soil aeration and Nematodes(Arbico Organics) to kill unwanted pests(grubs,fleas anything bad) Your grass will be so lush and green neighbors will think it's astro turf with out any chemicals. Do not over water you'll get fungus/brown spot. clay is actually very healthy lots of nutrients in it just has trouble with getting compacted then roots have trouble growing, buying the earthworms and red wrigglers help tremendously with this. after you add manure(yes it smells but not for long,benefits outweigh smell for few days) then reseed this will help keeping weeds from sprouting growing. this type of soil health will provide healthy plant growth eventually selfmaintenance except the cutting. start compost pile with clippings is great too adding house/green waste and the compost/manure put back onto lawn.