jimgioia1
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:38 am

My Lawn is Failing

Hi everyone. Just joined. First time poster.

Please forgive the length of my message. Just trying to spell it all out.

I am at a loss. My novice opinion is that the lawn is suffocating and needs both a thatching and aeration. I believe the last time it was aerated was a couple of years ago. Never thatched.

I normally cut it pretty high in the summer and go lower as fall comes. I have considered buying a lawn soil testing kit and see what that tells me but honestly I just don't know what to try first. I am sincerely hoping someone can advise me on what the problem is an where to start. I have attached some pics below. Thank you in advance.

My lawn is normally pretty decent. It has its problems but I keep it looking pretty good. I honestly do not know what type of grass it is but I use scott's sun and shade mix when seeding areas with issues. My normal care regimine constists of fertilizer w/pre-emergent in late winter. I feed the lawn using a 30-2-2 3-4 times during the season (April to August) using a weed control when necessary.

This year, I don't know what has happened. The lawn never really started growing in the spring. By May a good deal of the lawn still looked as if it was just coming out of winter. Sure, it grew in spots, but very sparse.

I tried using ringer restore on it in June with absolutely no result. It got enough water but not too much. Normally, when I cut my grass, I get a good couple of yard bags full. This season, maybe a half a bag?

There are bare spots, spots with grass that have almost a grey'ish tint and matted down. Other grasses have invaded like a real thin needle-like grass and some field grass (heavy thick blades). I have tried seeding a few of the bare areas with little to no success.

Jim
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imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It has a lot of thatch and needs to be dethatched. You have more than one grass growing there and I would not be growing the same kinds of grasses you grow. Shady mix has a lot of fescue, Kentucky blue grass, and annual rye which is unsuitable for my climate.

Step on the grass, if it leaves a footprint or does not spring back then you are probably not watering enough. It will be hard for water to get through a lot of dead roots.

Dethatch, aerate, and topdress. Top dressing is a fine compost. I mix it with fertilizer. I don't have a new lawn so I only give my grass sulfate of ammonia 21-0-0 New grass needs to have some phosphorus and potassium but older grass will build up too much thatch if it is over fertilized. I only fertilize my older lawn twice a year. If it grows and makes me mow more, I feed it only once a year.

Top dressing links below.
https://www.thelawninstitute.org/pages/ ... pdressing/
https://www.google.com/shopping/product ... gL7lPD_BwE

Except for watering an inch a week and dethatching and aerating, I would wait and get a soil test before doing the fertilizer and top dressing. You can contact your local land grant college extension service and find out the cost, and where to send the sample. My test costs about $12 for pH and major nutrients and for advice on amendments and fertilizer. It is better to know what you need than to guess.
Link on how to take a soil sample below
https://pss.uvm.edu/ag_testing/How_to_Ta ... Sample.pdf

I have a foot aerator similar to this. The spiked shoes don't do much. This is good for my small lawn and my lawn is soft enough and watered enough that I can easily spike it. It cores out the soil so it is an easy way for me to do sampling anywhere in the lawn or in the garden. If your ground is dry or hard. You may need to rent a power rake or dethatcher with aerator attachment. I use a thatching rake but it is a work out. A vertical lawn mower will also dethatch and sometimes I have to rent that when I let the thatch build up more than 1/2 inch. If you have a large lawn it might be worth buying if you have the space to keep it.
https://www.acehardware.com/product/inde ... ffa98eeb4b
https://www.amazon.com/GreenWorks-27022 ... merReviews


I got an estimate once for a landscaper to dethatch, aerate, topdress and fertilize my lawn where I used to live (about 4,000 sq ft). We were renting the house then and the estimate was $800, but the landscaper recommended against it because the tenants had not been watering the yard and the grass was in poor condition. We were mad because we gave them $100 off the rent to pay for watering the yard with the sprinkler system. They turned off the sprinkler.



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