How to Fix Bald Patches in Lawn?

[jsabia85]

This will be my second summer that I am moved into my new home. Last year I rototilled my entire back yard, ripped out all of the grass and weeds and re-seeded, fertilized etc. I did this back in September and the grass started to grow in nice but now this season there are A LOT of dead patches of grass, tons of weeds again and the grass looks horrible.

Can anybody give me some pointers on how I can grow a healthy green grass and how I can get grass to grow in the dead spots.

I do not have any trees on my property but my neighbors do and I have some shade spots in my backyard. Below are some pictured of my lawn, I seeded the lawn with LESCO seed mix and LESCO fertilizer. I installed an irrigation system last season why I rototilled the lawn as well. I have been watering the lawn everyday and it still looks the way it does.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[webmaster]

1. Do you or your neighbors have dogs or cats?

2. Dig down into the patches or near the patches. Do you see any kind of grubs that might be feeding on the roots or do you find tree roots?

3. Were patches always there or did the grass grow and then fail, turning into dead spots?

[jsabia85]

1.I have a dog and she uses the back yard

2. I will do this this weekend

3. The reason why I rototilled the lawn because there were always patches of just ditch and tons of weeds. Seems to be the same lawn even after I rototilled it.

[webmaster]

It could very well be dog urine that is causing those patches. Here's a previous post that discusses natural methods of eradicating grubs and problems encountered when starting a new lawn.

It's likely that the dog using the yard for potty time is the issue. Ordinarily it might cause yellow spots. But in this case it's possible the urine may have damaged the seedlings when you initially sowed them.

[imafan26]

I know you said you rototilled. Did you get a soil test by the way?

Did you amend or add compost or fertilizer before you seeded the lawn?

What kind of grass do you have?

While it could very well be a dog problem, sometimes it helps if you get the right kind of grass and train your dog to use a specific potty area. Grubs are also a possibility, sometimes choosing the right grass helps with that too.

Some grasses tolerate more wear than others and are tougher and less desirable for grubs. Mowing at the right height and a tight grass helps control weeds. If there were a lot of weeds and you roto-tilled them before pulling or killing them, that could be why they are a bigger problem now. There are post emergent
herbicides but it would depend on the kind of grass you have and you would probably have to do it in sections to exclude people and pets from the area until it is safe. Some grasses are good at competing and camouflaging weeds.

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homega ... ededa.html