pallavg
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:59 am

Caring for a new lawn

I live in El Dorado Hills, CA (northern CA). I bought a house ~5 month ago. The front lawn is ~150 sq. ft. I was told by the builder that they planted 90/10 fescue/bluegrass sod for grass.

I've been trying to take care of the lawn by mowing it about once a month and watering it regularly. However, the condition of the lawn seems to have deteriorated. A recent picture is here:

https://pasteboard.co/GJQvlEM.jpg
20170906_184307.jpg
I am seeing a lot of dead grass spots appear. Not sure why this is happening. I think I made a couple of mistakes.

1. On a couple of occasions, I mowed the lawn too low. I've corrected that by moving the setting on the lawn mower to maximum height.

2. For fertilizer, I am using Milorganite (organic). In early August, I applied about 2lbs with a spreader (instructions say 35lbs / 2500 sq ft). This was the first application. Instead of 'greening' the grass, a lot of it seems to have died.

3. For watering, the sprinklers are set to 20 min at 6:00 AM every day. I will reduce that as we get into the fall/rainy season. The soil underneath is mostly clay.

4. Temperatures have definitely been high (100-105+) in the previous month so maybe that has caused stress on the grass.

Given the picture above, what am I potentially doing wrong? Any recommendations for any corrective actions I can take for the lawn to recover back to health? Thanks.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Hopefully, someone can help you. I don't grow grass from seed or cool season grasses in Hawaii. I think you are watering too much especially in clay. You should only have had to water daily until the grass was established, then you should back off and water when the grass needs it. I would use grass fertilizer not milorganite. Grass needs nitrogen, in divided feedings. Although, your lawn is small, I would have used a grass that was more drought tolerant and if you have no snow issues, one that is perennial. You can probably remove the dead grass and use a grass patch and over seed it. Make sure you don't over water, it will cause the roots to rot.



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