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How To Fix Brown Lawn

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How To Revive Brown Grass

How to Revive a Brown Lawn | This Old House

    Naturally, rain will revive a brown lawn. However, if rainfall is insufficient watering the lawn deeply once a week will help your lawn to spring back to green. With Gilmours Pattern Master Circular sprinkler, you can customize the spray area so you water only the lawn and not the sidewalk. Set up a timer on your spigot, so the sprinkler will come on for 15-20 minutes per watering session. The best time to water is early in the morning between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., when its usually less windy and when temperatures are low.

    Once grass starts to grow again, its okay to mow with your mower set to 3 ½ inches. Do not scalp the lawn to try to remove brown blades of grass. Let new fresh grass grow around them. Leave grass clippings on the lawn to fertilize the lawn naturally.

    When soil is rehydrated and grass plants turn green, so will the weeds. Remove them by hand or spot-treat with a natural herbicide by following directions on the label.

How To Maintain Your Lawn To Help Reduce Brown Patch

A healthy lawn is a stronger lawn and will be better able to withstand fungal diseases like brown patch. Follow these guidelines:

  • Plant disease-resistant varieties and seed mixtures. For example, Scotts® Turf Builder® Grass Seed Heat-Tolerant Blue® Mix for Tall Fescue Lawns combines improved turf-type tall fescue varieties with a heat-tolerant Kentucky bluegrass to help reduce the impact of brown patch on your lawn.
  • Reduce the amount of time the grass blades are wet. When needed, water during the early morning hours. Dont water between 7:00 PM and 3:00 AM, as the blades will stay wet overnight.
  • Feed the lawn regularly with Scotts® Turf Builder® Lawn Food. Be sure to follow label directions, as overfed lawns are more susceptible to brown patch.
  • Unless it is a controlled-release product, dont apply nitrogen fertilizer when hot, humid weather is expected .

Since wet conditions help promote brown patch, make sure your lawn has good drainage and air flow, and consider pruning overgrown trees to prevent too much shade and increase air movement for faster drying. It may also be helpful to aerate and dethatch the lawn every 1 to 3 years to allow air, water, and nutrients to move more freely into the soil.

Lawn Burn From Dog Urine

Dog urine can be your lawns worst enemy, creating unsightly yellow or brown burnt patches. Dog urine has a variety of nitrogen compounds when a dog regular urinates on your lawn in the same location it can cause permanent damage.

Tips to help prevent dog urine from causing yellow or brown patches are to keep both your grass, and your dog, hydrated. A hydrated dog can reduce the concentration of the urine and minimise the burning effects on your lawn

If you catch your dog urinating on your lawn, aim to saturate the area with water immediately. This will serve to dilute the urine and reduce the amount of damage caused to your lawn. Find out more about reducing the impacts of your dogs urine on your lawn here.

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Cool Temperatures + Brown Lawn = Grass Dormancy

  • When does grass go dormant: As summer starts to fade away and temperatures consistently drop below 55°, some lawns enter dormancy. If leaves fall off the trees in your area, your grass will likely go dormant.
  • When does dormant grass come back? Inactive, brown grass will become green again in spring. To help your lawn green up faster, fertilize this fall.

An Ounce Of Prevention

How to repair brown lawn patches.

1. Soak your pets favorite areas in your lawn to remove salts from the root zone before they kill the grass.

2. Fertilize your lawn in the spring to boost the overall color and mask the darker green dog spots.

3. Train your pet to urinate in a designated area. Replace or repair the grass in this area annually or cover it with mulch.

4. Keep your pet well hydrated to make its urine less concentrated.

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Ways To Prevent And Correct Brown Spots To Maintain A Green Lawn

Feed the green, remove brown spots, and set up your lawn for consistent growth for years to come with these easy steps:

  • Water appropriately: If high moisture levels contribute to the yards brown patches, remove standing dew in the mornings by dragging your water hose over the lawn. If hydration is lacking, soak your lawn about once a week to provide about an inch of water. Install a quality irrigation system to offset Minnesotas irregular rainfall schedule and significantly improve your property.
  • Fix hydrophobic soil: During extended droughts, the ground may stop absorbing water correctly. You can add granular or liquid wetting agents to break down the waxy nature of the earth, break the surface tension and make it easier for water to penetrate the ground.
  • Fertilize properly: Anyone whos had a pet goldfish has heard the number one rule dont overfeed it! In the same way, feeding your lawn is a delicate balance of using the right nutrients at the right frequency. Too much or too little fertilizer can make your grass fungi-prone. Talk to an experienced yard care provider to develop the best fertilization regimen to prevent weeds, fungus, and brown spots.
  • Improve air circulation: Reduce the humidity factors contributing to fungus-based brown patches by dethatching and aerating your lawn annually. Aeration loosens compacted soil and promotes soil drainage to prevent fungi activation.
  • Lawn Repair: How To Fix Brown Spots And Bare Patches

    There is more than one way to repair your lawn, and you will need to determine which protocols are best for your situation. For example, if your lawn is thinning but still relatively healthy, you may be able to simply reseed the sparse areas to fill them in. However, if you have a patch of dead grass, you will likely need to remove the dead grass and replace it.

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    What About Weeds Are They Dormant Too

    Some weeds may grow while the grass is dormant. Dandelions, for example, are perennial weeds with tap roots that reach into the soil for moisture. They can survive heat and drought. The best way to keep weeds in check is to maintain a healthy lawn. If you see weeds actively growing when your lawn is dormant, pull them by hand or spot-treat with an organic herbicide .

    If hot weather and drought make your grass turn brown, just remember that brown lawns are not necessarily dead lawns. Good lawn care practices and a little patience are all you need.

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    Brown Patch Disease Fungus

    How to fix brown patches in your lawn

    Lets start with the most obvious of them all lawn fungi! Whether its brown patch disease, spring dead spot, dollar spot, or leaf spot, fungi are a huge detriment to the health of Bermuda grass.

    Most of these fungi stay dormant in wait for the perfect conditions for growth and reproduction. The brown patches or dead spots will start to show during the warmth of the hot summer days and the moisture from nighttime irrigation you do on your bermuda grass lawn.

    With time, fungal residue inhibits photosynthesis, as the fungi gradually spread across the grass leaves, leaving dead spots on the infested areas. The visual results are patches of brown grass.

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    Brown Patch Disease Of Lawns Introduction Urban

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    Proper Mowing Goes A Long Way

    The simplest thing to help get rid of brown patch or any other turf disease, is mowing your lawn properly. We recommend homeowners to:

    • Sharpen mower blades: dull mower blades cause wounds through which disease may spread.
    • Do not mow the lawn when it is wet.
    • Mow at the proper heightlawns mowed at the mowers highest setting stand up to stress better.

    Dead Grass Or Dormant Grass

    Grass begins turning brown when its roots are no longer absorbing the necessary nutrients from the soil but this isnt necessarily a concern in fact, its part of grass natural life cycle. Dormancy is comparable to an animal hibernating over the winter when food is scarce, and it can be caused by drought, flooding, too much watering, extreme heat, extreme cold, or poor soil quality.

    However, brown grass could also mean dead grass. Its often difficult to tell the difference between dormant grass and dead grass, especially for the casual gardener. There are however some signs to look for:

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    How To Fix A Brown Patch In Your Lawn: 6 Steps

    Lawn and GardenGustaf JohanssonThis article may contain links from our partners. Please read our Disclaimer for more information.

    Your lawn is lovely and green, except for a large spot of brown grass that you cant seem to eliminate no matter how much you mow your grass or water.

    Its frustrating because it feels like its appeared out of the blue, but it does have a cause and solution.

    Whats causing the grass to have brown patches?

    This can be as a result of fungi that are attacking the grass. These fungal patches tend to strike during the hotter months.

    Luckily, there are easy ways to treat and eliminate the fungus so that your lawn can go back to looking beautiful and being healthy.

    Here are some tips to follow.

    Lawn Fungus Treatments For Dollar Spots

    Pin by Mandy Blevins on Outdoors

    Dollar spots are small circular patches in the lawn that can get up to a few inches in diameter. This is a grass disease that is the result of a fungal infection. The fungus tends to thrive in lawns that are undernourished and areas where the air is moist but the soil is dry.

    The first step in preventing dollar spots is to make sure you are providing your lawn with enough nitrogen. Along with that, you want to water your lawn deeply a few times a week. You may also want to consider aerating your lawn to help water and nutrients reach roots.

    Grass diseases can be very difficult to get under control once they are established in your lawn. That is why you should focus on prevention. Develop a lawn care plan based on the type of grass you have and the conditions in your yard. Your lawn wont be as vulnerable if you are mowing your lawn to the correct height, providing the right amount of water and using the right fertilizer.

    Get all the tools you need to ensure your lawn is looking its best at WORX!

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    What Is Brown Patch

    Brown patch is a soil-living fungus which becomes active in humid months where temperatures reach the mid 80s during the day, and mid to upper 70s overnight.

    Like the name would lead you to believe, brown patch is a lawn disease that causes a brownish discoloration of your turfgrass. More specifically, it starts out with lesions on the grass blades .

    As brown patch develops, these lesions spread to cover the entire grass blade, causing thinning and matting of the turf. On shorter lawns, these patches may appear to have a “smoke ring” of dark gray around the outer edge.

    Enlist The Help Of Professionals

    Lawn care providers such as Green Oasis Lawn and Reticulation can help you establish and maintain a healthy turf thats less susceptible to brown patch by handling soil aeration, disease control, moisture retention, de-thatching and more. With over 15 years of experience in lawn care, we are a dedicated team of turf and irrigation professionals who will restore your lawn to its former glory.

    For more information and enquiries on treating brown patch in lawns, dont hesitate to call us today.

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    Know What Brown Fungus Looks Like

    You can spot Rhizoctonia fungus by how it creates round areas of brown that show up on your lawn.

    You might also notice dead grass inside this circle and a dark ring that creates a border around it.

    These brown circles quickly expand alarmingly, they can get up to several feet in size, so you want to treat them quickly to prevent them from striking larger parts of your garden.

    Its important to note that Rhizoctonia fungus doesnt spread by spores.

    It is spread by water or wind that moves soil particles that it has infected.

    It can also be spread quite easily by you if you work on your garden and get some of the infected soil on your hands, as Greenhouse Grower reports.

    Bear in mind that brown fungus as its called actually refers to a variety of different fungal diseases.

    So, while you might notice the above-mentioned signs that youve got brown fungus on your hands, there are other symptoms to look out for that signal your lawn has a fungal infection.

    These include brown streaks in your lawn, spots on grass blades, discoloration, or powdery blotches.

    How To Prevent Brown Patch

    DIY How to fix dry thin lawn, brown lawn, shallow roots, sticky thatch, gray grass.

    The fungus thrives on conditions that leave your lawn damp for 48 hours or more, making mid-late summer prime time for it to thrive with damage rearing its ugly head in the fall. Not to mention excessive irrigation, rainfall, and humidity all exacerbate the problem. For this reason, water management is key to preventing brown patch. Irrigation should only be used to supplement rainfall. Rain sensors and smart controllers solve for this and ensure youre not overwatering.

    One of the toughest parts about treating brown patch is that its likely to reoccur in lawns that have previously struggled with the fungus. If your lawn tends to be affected by brown patch annually, your landscape partner will probably prescribe a prophylactic fungicide application in the fall, with follow-up applications at regular intervals as the weather continues to cool.

    Even if your lawn has been spared, you should still remain vigilant. Brown patch can remain dormant in soil for years until favorable conditions are achieved. In fact, some properties that struggle with brown patch might notice signs of infection subside when the weather warms, only to return later in the year when conditions become favorable once more.

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    Professional Lawn Services In Minnesota

    Are you looking for a professional lawn service company in the Twin Cities area to help you feed and maintain a gorgeous green lawn all season long? Look no further than Green & Black!

    We use superior mowing and fertilization practices to transform your commercial or personal propertys turf from blotchy to beautiful. Our experienced Green & Black lawn specialists have the state-of-the-art equipment and know-how to provide a personalized, full-service lawn renovation plan to nourish your soil, kill existing weeds and maintain irrigation systems to treat your grass from root to tip.

    If youre ready to have the best-looking lawn on the street, dont hesitate to contact us online.

    Other Reasons Your Grass Is Turning Brown And Dying

    • Your lawn may have buried debris thats causing problems.
    • Sloping yards could have an erosion issue. Ground covers are a great way to reduce erosion on slopes. Succulents make pretty, easy-to-care for ground covers.
    • Tree roots make growing grass tough but you can do it when you use shade-tolerant grasses within your climate zone.
    • Different areas of your lawn require different care, and thats especially true of sunny spots. If your grass is turning brown, it could be because its not getting enough water. Lawns typically need an inch of water a week to stay healthy. Picking the right sprinkler for spots in your yard is one of the best ways to keep it healthy.
    • If different spots of your yard turned brown, you may just have a mix of grasses. Some grasses will go dormant while others will continue to grow.

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    Will Garden Fungus Die In The Winter

    Although you would think that the freezing cold temperatures would kill off the fungus, this isnt always the case.

    This is because of how the ice can melt and cause dampness on the ground.

    A good tip is to dry out your grass in the early spring to kill the fungus. You can dry out your lawn in the following ways:

    • Mow your lawn when it is perfectly dry so that you prevent the spread of fungal spores. In the case of brown patch fungus that isnt spread by spores, you should still mow the lawn when it is dry to prevent infected soil particles from spreading to other parts of your garden.
    • Remove thatch which can trap moisture in the ground.
    • Maintain a healthy soil pH level. If the soil is too alkaline or acidic, these can cause problems including fungus that will attack the lawn. This is especially the case when it comes to a lawn that has a low pH a pH of less than 6.0 could make brown patch even more severe.

    Pro tip: Test your soil pH during a fungal infection so you can see what level it has and then correct it with the use of lime to boost the pH or sulfur to lower it, SF Gate reports.

    There are other types of fungus that can attack during the winter so its worth bearing these in mind.

    As Green Industry Pros reports, after two months of regular snow cover on your grass, this is the perfect situation for mold such as gray snow mold to thrive.

    This mold can be spotted by how it creates small round brown patches on the lawn.

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