Problems with a new lawn

[Mike Graham]

Hi everyone,

Recently (June 2009) had a new lawn laid by my dad, and having a few issues with it since. It has rooted and knitted together fine, its just not as green as it used to be when it first got laid, and there are odd what appear to be dead patches on the lawn, but if you let it grow, green shoots come out of them.

The land had been prepared over months by myself, I dug it all over, we had a bit of top soil extra to raise the level, then mixed compost in and some pre-turf fertiliser and then left it for a week. Turf was delivered and laid the same day from a top UK company, lawn looked lovely for a good 2 months after, given it frequent mowing ever since it had rooted.

I had suspected some sort of fungus, as a few of my plants have suffered this year, so have sprayed with fungicide but this will only stop the spread, which seems to have happened, doesn't appear to be getting any worse.

Not sure where to go from here to get the lush green back. This turf cost me £135 so don't want to replace it. Weird thing is, left for 3 weeks it looks brilliant, until you cut it and then it looks like this. Have tried different mowing heights, 37mm and today did a 27mm but it always seems to look the same. Have a qualcast cylinder mower which is brand new, so blades are sharp etc.

Here are some photos, see if you know what it is:

Full lawn
[img]https://mike-graham.co.uk/lawn/100_1626.JPG[/img]

Pictures of problem patches (there are approx 20-30 like this)
[img]https://mike-graham.co.uk/lawn/100_1627.JPG[/img]
[img]https://mike-graham.co.uk/lawn/100_1628.JPG[/img]
[img]https://mike-graham.co.uk/lawn/100_1629.JPG[/img]

Hope someone can help me on this one!

Thanks in advance
Mike

[phantomphan]

mike,

yes it appears it might be some sort of disease, but it may also be insects, hard to tell from pics. try to dig up a spot and check for grubs or other insect larvae. also would help it you told us what kind of grass you planted, looks like a fescue. if it is a fescue it also appears you are mowing to short. fescue likes a height of 2.5 to 3 inches. i would also get a thatch rake and get the dead grass out and reseed. do you have book on lawn care? if not you might want to get one. if you can, dig up a small sample and ask your local greens/groundskeeper they would more than likely know what your problem is and recommend a solution. i invite you to read my blog at www.basiclawncare.blogspot.com, good luck with your lawn.