Keeping a good lawn isn’t too difficult most of the time but in some cases, you’ll end up with dead patches or struggle to get areas to grow properly and you just can’t work out why. It’s so frustrating trying to work out what to do with it and you might give up hope entirely and just accept that you’ve got a big yellow patch in the middle of the lawn. But most of the time, you can work out a solution and get your grass looking healthy again.
If it’s particularly bad and nothing else works, you may just have to get rid of the lawn and start again by killing all of the grass. Then you can prepare the soil again and make sure that it’s in good condition before planting all of the seed again. If you’re going down that route, you should probably just get a professional company like ABC Lawn Care to come in and do it for you.
Putting that much weed killer down can cause a lot of damage so it’s important that it’s done right. It can also be a struggle preparing the soil properly and if you get it wrong, you’re going to end up with the same lawn issues as before. It’s just easier to leave it to the experts.
However, before you start again completely, you should try to work out what’s causing your lawn problems and see if there is a way to solve them. These are some of the most common causes of bad lawns and how you can solve them.
Compacted Soil
There are all sorts of causes for dry, brown spots on the lawn and they can be a real pain to get rid of, but don’t worry, you can get your grass back to normal again. If you’ve got pets, there’s a big chance that they’re causing the brown spots by going to the toilet on your lawn. You can usually tell that it’s your pets if the patches are particularly circular. There’s not much you can do to stop that apart from trying to keep them off the grass. But if you don’t have pets and you’ve got a lot of dark brown spots, you might have bigger problems. One common cause is compacted soil. Certain areas that are denser and more tightly packed will struggle to grow properly and you’ll end up with those dead patches on the top. They won’t be as perfectly circular as spots caused by pets.
The solution to this one is actually fairly easy. Once a year, just before spring, you need to aerate the lawn. Get a fork and spike the soil a little, you don’t need to overturn it completely. That should break up those compacted areas of soil and make it easier for the grass on top to grow. Then you just need to make sure that you’re looking after the lawn properly and watering it regularly. If you’re worried about putting too much water on your lawn, you can use these great water saving tips to make sure that it’s still healthy while you cut down on your water use.
Caterpillars
People are often wary of caterpillars eating other plants around the garden but they don’t think about them eating the lawn. Lawn caterpillars can be a real problem because they get right into the roots and eat them all, causing the grass to dry out in large patches around the garden. It sometimes takes people a long while to realize that they’ve got a big problem with lawn caterpillars because they only come out at night. They hide in amongst the roots during the day and then come up at night to eat the blades of grass on top.
The easiest way to work out if you do have lawn caterpillars is to leave a damp towel on the lawn overnight. In the morning, you should have a load gathered underneath the towel. The bad news is that pesticides are the only real option here, otherwise, you won’t get rid of the caterpillars.
You can get specific caterpillar pesticide from any good garden store but be careful which ones you choose. Some leave behind a lot of toxic residue which can kill bees and other insects around the garden that you don’t want to harm. Check the label to make sure that you’re getting a safe one.
White Grubs
You get white grubs in your lawn when beetles lay their eggs in the grass. Once the white grubs hatch, they’ll burrow into the earth and start eating all of the roots from your lawn, resulting in a lot of irregular dead patches. It’s fairly easy to tell if you’ve got a big problem with white grubs because they’ll eat so many of the roots that you’ll be able to roll back the top layer of lawn and see them all underneath.
They’re usually most active in the autumn and that’s when most of the damage will be done so pay extra attention to the health of your lawn around that time of year.
The easiest way to clear them all out of the lawn is to use imidacloprid in late spring or early summer every year and that should help you to manage it. It’s also important that you’re looking after the lawn properly because if you’re watering too much or too little, and the lawn isn’t properly fertilised, you’re far more likely to get a problem with white grubs.
Winter Grass
Winter grass is a type of weed that comes out as small clusters, usually next to paving slabs and around the edges of the lawn. It’s a pretty annoying weed that makes the lawn look scruffy and untidy. It also grows in bald spots so if you’ve got one of the other issues on this list, you’re probably going to have an issue with winter grass at the same time.
Trying to combat it is fairly easy as long as you keep an eye for it. If you can just pull it out when it first starts appearing, it won’t get on top of you. But if you don’t get rid of it straight away, it’ll grow quickly and become more difficult to get rid of. If you’ve let it get out of control, you’ll have to spend ages pulling it all up.
When you are weeding the garden for winter grass, make sure that you’re throwing the weeds away immediately, otherwise, you’ll end up spreading the seeds around the garden and it’ll come back twice as thick as before. You can’t really use weed killer to get rid of it because you’ll end up killing the rest of the grass at the same time.
All of these problems have specific causes and solutions but general lawn care is important for avoiding them too. Aerating the soil by spiking it with a fork each year is a good way to stop issues with compacted soil but it’s also good for general root health which will make the lawn a lot healthier.
Using the right fertilizer is important as well, otherwise, your lawn won’t have all of the nutrients that it needs to grow properly. Lastly, you need to make sure that you’re watering it properly and always adjust the amount of water you give it based on the weather.
If you underwater it, it’ll dry out and die. If you overwater it, the roots will be too wet and they can easily start to rot which will kill the lawn as well. If you care for the grass properly and keep an eye out for these common problems, you should be able to grow a healthy lawn.