How To Cure a Sick Lawn
Even the most well-kept lawn can fall prey to disease. All it takes is an unfortunate combination of temperature that’s too warm or too cool, weather that’s too wet or too dry, or other environmental stresses. Too much fertilisation, improper mowing, thatch, and compacted soil are also culprits. Lawn fungi are opportunists, waiting in the soil for the right moment.
When know that turning to someone such as https://www.thelocaltreeexpert.com/tn/memphis/ when we have issues with trees is a must, so of course, in this situation, a professional lawn care service has the experience to diagnose your problem and treat it properly, but before you call or try to cure things yourself, there are some signs to look for if you have brown or bleached yellow spots on your lawn.
Is It Sick or Is It Something Else?
If you’ve got brown patches on your lawn, there might be culprits other than a fungal disease.
Has Your Dog Been at Work?
The giveaway is that urine shows up as a dead area with a green ring around it. Next time, as soon as you see your dog walk away with that satisfied grin on her face, grab the hose or a bucket of water and flush the area thoroughly. You’ll get the best results if you do it within an hour. Of course you’ll get better ultimate results if you train your pooch to use an entirely different place other than your lawn to conduct business.
Have You Been Mowing Too Closely?
Many people think that mowing closely and therefore less frequently saves time. That may be true, but it’s not good for the lawn. Cutting off more than a third of the height of the grass blades when they’re at their full height (2” to 4” for most turf grass) deprives the grass of nourishment. It also lets too much light filter through to the soil, giving incentive for weeds to spring up.
It can be worth talking to a lawn mowing expert to see if they could help with correct cutting.
Have You Used Too Much or Spilled Pesticide?
Too much insecticide or herbicide can “burn” the grass and turn it yellow or brown.
Have You Spilled Fertiliser or Petrol?
A spill can be damaging and lead to yellow or brown spots. Flush any unwelcome products with water immediately.
Have You’ve Slacked off on Watering?
Some areas of the country have restrictions on water, but your grass does need water to thrive. To water economically, do it early in the day so your lawn gets the full benefit before sun and warm temperatures cause evaporation. You can get water timers on this website that will automatically turn the water on and off at whatever time you want.
Is Your Lawn Just Going Dormant?
Cool-season grasses turn brown when the weather is hot or dry. Warm-season grasses go dormant when the weather gets cool. It’s a natural occurrence, a resting time for the lawn, and not a disease.
It’s None of Those, So What Next?
If none of the above conditions apply, then you want to go the next step and identify the kind of disease your lawn has. Here are some common lawn fungus diseases and how to identify them.
Brown Patch
Just as its name suggests, this disease generally shows itself as circular or irregular brown patches, some of which can be quite large. The first sign is spotting on grass leaf blades that eventually bleed together to turn the entire leaf brown. Over-watering or over-fertilising are usually the cause, with warm weather and high humidity encouraging it to spread quickly.
Fairy Ring
This disease causes circular patches of dark green grass, with lighter colored areas of dying grass surrounding them. Lawns are susceptible to fairy ring during mild, moist conditions and dry, hot weather as well.
Yellow Patch
Cool, wet conditions encourage the growth of this disease, which shows as circular patches of light tan to brown grass.
Dollar Spot
This fungus causes silver-dollar-sized spots of tan or brown grass to appear all over the lawn. These spots may grow together, forming large affected areas. High humidity is generally to blame.
Now What?
Remedies range from fungicides specifically tailored to the disease and type of turf it has infected, all the way to requiring complete removal of the affected area and then reseeding.
Consult a specialist or your local garden center to determine the course of action that’s right for your lawn. In the meantime, avoid walking on that part of the grass, and don’t use the same tools on both the sick and healthy parts of your lawn so you don’t inadvertently spread the infection.
For help identifying diseases in your lawn, check out the directory here.
How do you look after your lawn?
My dad who does more gardening then me would like this. I will show this post to him…
This is a great reference sheet for lawns. We do many of these things to keep ours looking great!
While it is good to look for a professional lawn service team, it is always better to check yourself to see if you can get a solution. These are some great tips to note & I would love to try these tips for our front yard.
Most definitely if you can fix it yourself awesome, but if you are worried or unsure or don’t think you can no harm in calling for help 🙂 x
I’ve never had a lawn so I didn’t even know that it could actually die or get sick. These seem to be good tips for those who has one and very useful too.
I had a problem with my lawn before. Good thing that it was addressed properly.
I had no idea there were so many factors in how your lawn can be sick. I think my husband is mowing our grass too close.
Hmm, I wonder if we are mowing too close. I do know it’s so easy to have something go wrong, and so hard to fix it, when it comes to the lawn.
These are awesome tips. We have bermuda grass in our yard, and so far they’re very good and less maintenance.
I wanted to throw in the towel so hard once that I actually almost bought sod. Pregrown grass! It would have just been a matter of watering it right…maybe.
I remember trying to grow grass once and it did not do as well as I had hoped. Turned out that my dog was the mastermind behind it’s demise!
Having a really healthy lawn can be trying at times. Figuring out what might be causing some parts to grow strong and others to fade can be a tiresome job.
I don’t have a green thumb so I need all the help I can get! I know almost none of this stuff so I learned a lot about what could be wrong with a lawn.
I am the same with flowers – I’m not very good at keeping them alive – one day perhaps! x
These are all wonderful ideas. Our yard has some brown spots, but that’s most likely because we drive around with many things all over it. We have a four wheeler and golf cart that we use around the yard for fun. I love all these great ways to make it nicer though.
This is a great post. My lawn is brown right now but we have not had any rain.
Ekk I hope it peps up a bit soon for you and turns lovely and green. x
Great advice!!! Honestly I suck when it comes to my lawn. I try so hard and ughhh… It forever looks like crap lol…. I will have to see if your tips will save it!
I hope they help! I really need to get out and cut ours it has suddenly gone crazy! x
This post is so helpful. Sick lawn has always been our problem especially if the season will about to change.
Ekk I hope you can find something useful in the post to help with your lawn 🙂 x
We don’t have a lawn at home but my grandma’s house has a lawn. I will let her know about this.
oooh awesome tips, will share with my dad. The fairy ring one was highly interesting.
Lawns are tough work, without a doubt, but with the proper care it’s definitely easy to fix. Thanks for all these tips, they sure are helpful!
They really are – I was surprised by how much work they can be, I just thought you mowed them and that was it lol. x
Great info! our back lawn is all dirt. Not a strand of grass to be seen. I really wish they’d have done something before we moved in its such a pain in the butt.
Thanks for the helpful reference material.
This should come in handy this season.
This is very informative. I will share this to my neighborhood because their lawns are becoming a headache to them.
I learned so much that I didn’t know about grass! Thank you for this great information.
I always wanted a lawn in a house but I am not that lucky. This is a helpful blog esp to house owners.
I really had no idea lawn could get sick. This article could be really helpful for when I start building my garden after I move!
Thank you for these tips. We don’t have a large lawn, just a moderate sized one, but still, it would be nice to have it looking nice and green. The first thing I would do would be your tip about our fur baby doing his business someplace else.
This is great information. Our lawn service is paid for and handle by our homeowners association. They always have the grass looking nice and green in the summer.
That is awesome and it means you don’t have to worry about it at all! x
I love the look of a nice grassy green lawn.
They look lovely when they are lush and green don’t they. x
I didn’t realize how many little things the grass could be trying to tell me. Mine is definitely asking for help. I also think we mow too close.
It is amazing isn’t it all the little things that could be making a big difference. x
Great things to check in this post! We have had so much rain recently, I don’t think there’s a sick lawn in our entire neighborhood!
The rain is great unless it gets too much had that happen before and it was awful! x
Such a helpful tis here! I never though that the grass might be sick..or that the cutting it to short might be bad it. Thanks for sharing.
It is amazing isn’t it all the things that can happen to a lawn, you wouldn’t think it would be so bad! x
I live in a complex and I don’t have to deal with these type of situations, but I will pass this along to my friends! great tips!
Our yard has definitely seem better days. I am going to use some of this advice and see if I can get it looking great again.
I shall keep my fingers crossed that you managed to get it looking beautiful! x
Thanks so much for these tips! I’m going to send this to my husband. He’s in charge of all things lawn, and this year has been a bit of a challenge for him.
Ekk well I hope they help him work out what is going wrong with your lawn 🙂 x
Grass seems complicated to grow. I dont have any, just plants and rocks as I live in the dessert.
Its odd isn’t it – I always thought it was so easy but it is actually so complex! x
Our lawn used to be brown weeds in the summer. Now with our sprinklers we have green weeds. Getting there 🙂
Ohh yay! *Fingers crossed* it will end up as lovely green green grass!
Ahhh! I needed this today 🙂 My front yard is so much more sickly than my back yard and I’m at a loss of what to do. Thanks for the help!
Ekk I really hope it gets the front looking as good as the back 🙂 x