Cannot get grass to grow
My house was built in 2006 and to save money I thought that I would seed the lawn myself. I used a commercial seed and then put straw over it. I did not put it on real thick but only a thin layer. About a week later I saw green patches starting to come up and was real excited. It looked good for a little while then turned brown during the hot summer months. In the spring of 2007, the grass did not come up that well it was real short and some of it was green and some of it was brown. Turned all brown in the hot summer months. In 2008 I had TruGreen come out and take care of my lawn. Nothing much happened, just gave them $400 or so to take care of lawn for the summer. Now in 2009 neighbors grass is starting to turn green and most of them have mowed for the first time. My grass is not tall enought to mow. It is very short some green, some brown. What do I need to do. Aerate, reseed, fertilize. Please someone help me!
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hendi_alex
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 3604
- Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
- Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina
Your local agricultural extension office could be your best friend on this. First of all you need a soil test, which they will do either for free or for a modest price. Once you have the soil test one of their agents should be able to give specific recommendations based upon your soil and the kind of grass you seeded.
Here is a link to get you started.
https://extension.osu.edu/counties.php
Here is a link to get you started.
https://extension.osu.edu/counties.php
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The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Seeding a lawn any other time than the fall is asking for trouble, and it sounds like you did spring planting...
Cool season grasses (most of our turf grasses) hate the summer months and shut down, right at the time new grass REALLY needs more roots (to get more water), Meanwhile the badguys (hot season grasses, like crabgrass, and annual weeds) are in their glory, and start to outcompete your turf. The ChemLawn guys come out and wipe out the beneficial organisms in your soils with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and... you can see the results. Baby grass is a sissy plant that gets beat up by everyone and everything...
This is a tough time to ask this question, as the best answer is to hold your nose until fall and reseed. If you must seed now, use a mix of annual and perennial ryes as they are faster than anything else to germinate and offer a good base for most lawns. Mowing should be rare and high (3+ inches; the taller the betterand no more than I/3rd the total blade height at a time) to shade weed seed and encourage root development, and mulching mowers are preferable (returns 2lb.s of nitrogen per 1K sq. feet a year and adds humus for biology . In the fall I'd slice seed (you can rent the machine and it's worth it) with tall turf type fescue, which is massively drought tolerant and should fill in nicely...think about adding some clover seed as it adds nitrogen from the atmosphere and fills in wet spots great...
Use corn gluten at 20 lb.s per 1K sq. ft. when the forsythia are in bloom (this will help some with annual weeds as well) and perhaps another plant based fertilizer (soy, alfalfa or such) at half rate in June. Let the clippings fall and you should have the nitrogen you need for the year. But if you are going to spring plant again, do it as soon as soil temps are above 40 degrees or so; time is NOT on your side, so be ready to supplement water as well...
Good Luck
HG
Cool season grasses (most of our turf grasses) hate the summer months and shut down, right at the time new grass REALLY needs more roots (to get more water), Meanwhile the badguys (hot season grasses, like crabgrass, and annual weeds) are in their glory, and start to outcompete your turf. The ChemLawn guys come out and wipe out the beneficial organisms in your soils with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and... you can see the results. Baby grass is a sissy plant that gets beat up by everyone and everything...
This is a tough time to ask this question, as the best answer is to hold your nose until fall and reseed. If you must seed now, use a mix of annual and perennial ryes as they are faster than anything else to germinate and offer a good base for most lawns. Mowing should be rare and high (3+ inches; the taller the betterand no more than I/3rd the total blade height at a time) to shade weed seed and encourage root development, and mulching mowers are preferable (returns 2lb.s of nitrogen per 1K sq. feet a year and adds humus for biology . In the fall I'd slice seed (you can rent the machine and it's worth it) with tall turf type fescue, which is massively drought tolerant and should fill in nicely...think about adding some clover seed as it adds nitrogen from the atmosphere and fills in wet spots great...
Use corn gluten at 20 lb.s per 1K sq. ft. when the forsythia are in bloom (this will help some with annual weeds as well) and perhaps another plant based fertilizer (soy, alfalfa or such) at half rate in June. Let the clippings fall and you should have the nitrogen you need for the year. But if you are going to spring plant again, do it as soon as soil temps are above 40 degrees or so; time is NOT on your side, so be ready to supplement water as well...
Good Luck
HG
Last edited by The Helpful Gardener on Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Even though you have offered much details, I am encouraged by the fact that you have grass even if some of it is brown. You did everything you thought you needed to do, which tells me you care and want your grass to look nice.
First, I want you to understand that cultural practices are the most important. How you maintain the lawn - how often you irrigate, how much water, how high you mow, and when you fertilize - are key in creating a healthy and attractive lawn. I am going to suggest you treat the lawn as if there is nothing different about it from your neighbor's lawn. In other words, just ignore that it's not ideal and follow the instructions below. They will guide you in building healthy environment and attractive lawn in no time at all.
1. Get the soil test as hendi_alex suggested.
Among other things, it will let you know the soil pH balance and if you need to lime or sulfur. That is very important.
2. Water deep but infrequently.
Your lawn needs one inch of water per week including rainfall. Using tuna cans placed in various places, run the sprinkler to obtain one inch of water in the tuna cans and time it. Run the sprinklers each week for that amount of time in every section to achieve one inch of irrigation all over. One inch will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. This encourages the roots grow deeply. The soil will pull the water downward. The roots will grow down looking for water and nutrients. Each week, be sure to take rainfall into consideration.
b. Summertime irrigation requires amending the above advice. In extremely hot weather of 90° and above, divide the week's 1 inch of water by two. So, you would irrigate twice in that week (at 3-4 day intervals) but only half an inch of water each time.
c. During long heat waves, you can divide by three to water every other day for one third the time.
2. Always mow high at 3 inches or higher on a regular basis. Mowing high permits proper photosynthesis. That means the grass needs sunlight to grow. The shorter the blades of grass, the more you impede the photosynthesis process. It is also very important to remember never to cut more than one third of the grass blade at a time. You may wish to mow once a week or two times a week depending on how fast the grass grows, just so long as no more than one third is cut off at once.
3. Wait until May to fertilize. Right now you should put down crabgrass control if you haven't already but make sure it is a product that does not contain fertilizer so you can wait until May to feed the lawn.
Infrequent deep watering, frequently mowing high, and timely fertilizer applications are the three crucial points of lawn care. Anything else you do is secondary to these cultural practices.
As I mentioned, this will dramatically improve the appearance and overall health of your lawn. The rest depends mostly on the grass type as to whether you are completely satisfied at the end of summer. If not, then that is the time to renovate and plant new seeds.
I do not know the types of grass you seeded or if there are any specific problems, such as disease or shade issues. Please let us know if you are growing grass in shade conditions.
First, I want you to understand that cultural practices are the most important. How you maintain the lawn - how often you irrigate, how much water, how high you mow, and when you fertilize - are key in creating a healthy and attractive lawn. I am going to suggest you treat the lawn as if there is nothing different about it from your neighbor's lawn. In other words, just ignore that it's not ideal and follow the instructions below. They will guide you in building healthy environment and attractive lawn in no time at all.
1. Get the soil test as hendi_alex suggested.
Among other things, it will let you know the soil pH balance and if you need to lime or sulfur. That is very important.
2. Water deep but infrequently.
Your lawn needs one inch of water per week including rainfall. Using tuna cans placed in various places, run the sprinkler to obtain one inch of water in the tuna cans and time it. Run the sprinklers each week for that amount of time in every section to achieve one inch of irrigation all over. One inch will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. This encourages the roots grow deeply. The soil will pull the water downward. The roots will grow down looking for water and nutrients. Each week, be sure to take rainfall into consideration.
b. Summertime irrigation requires amending the above advice. In extremely hot weather of 90° and above, divide the week's 1 inch of water by two. So, you would irrigate twice in that week (at 3-4 day intervals) but only half an inch of water each time.
c. During long heat waves, you can divide by three to water every other day for one third the time.
2. Always mow high at 3 inches or higher on a regular basis. Mowing high permits proper photosynthesis. That means the grass needs sunlight to grow. The shorter the blades of grass, the more you impede the photosynthesis process. It is also very important to remember never to cut more than one third of the grass blade at a time. You may wish to mow once a week or two times a week depending on how fast the grass grows, just so long as no more than one third is cut off at once.
3. Wait until May to fertilize. Right now you should put down crabgrass control if you haven't already but make sure it is a product that does not contain fertilizer so you can wait until May to feed the lawn.
Infrequent deep watering, frequently mowing high, and timely fertilizer applications are the three crucial points of lawn care. Anything else you do is secondary to these cultural practices.
As I mentioned, this will dramatically improve the appearance and overall health of your lawn. The rest depends mostly on the grass type as to whether you are completely satisfied at the end of summer. If not, then that is the time to renovate and plant new seeds.
I do not know the types of grass you seeded or if there are any specific problems, such as disease or shade issues. Please let us know if you are growing grass in shade conditions.
