Ive Got Crabgrass In My Lawn
Theres no argument about it: Crabgrass is a troublemaker. The best way to treat it is to keep it from appearing in the first place. Use Scotts® Turf Builder® Halts Crabgrass Preventer with Lawn Food* in early spring to stop crabgrass from sprouting and protect your lawn all season long, while fertilizing at the same time for strong, lush grass growth. Crabgrass already making its unwanted presence known? Stop it cold with Scotts® Spot Weed Control for Lawns, which kills crabgrass down to the root without harming the lawn.
Need Help Let The Professionals Take Care Of Your Bald Spots
If you are a homeowner that cares about having a healthy, thick carpet of green grass all year round, Evergreen can help. We offer lawn services that will keep your lawn green, and let you spend more time with your family rather than working in your yard. With over 30 years in the lawn care industry, we know how to get the job done right, and we love seeing the results of our work. Dont let bald spots take over your lawn! If you have any questions about fixing dead patches of grass or want a professional to take care of it for you, feel free to give us a call at !
Want to know more about lawn maintenance?
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Water New Seed Or Sod
Keep the area moist, not soaking wet. In some cases, you may need to water two or three times a day. And be patient! Depending on the type of grass, it can take a few days to a few weeks for it to germinate. Let the grass grow about four or five inches before its first mowing, so the seedlings dont get yanked out. And dont mow while the sprawl is wet to avoid creating tire ruts. Follow the same irrigation rules for sod, but dont mow it until you can gently pull on the pieces and feel that it has rooted.
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Use Proprietary Lawn Patch Products
Another viable repair technique is using lawn patch repair products.
Most of these are specifically formulated to provide all-in-one brown/bare spots fix for your lawn and make repairing the bare spots easy-peasy!
If this is the way you feel you should go, here are some products worth looking at:
- Scotts Patchmaster this wonderful ready-to-grow grass repair mix begins to grow in as little as seven days and blends nicely with your lawn
- Grotrax quick fix grass patch repair roll place the product on your bare spots and water as recommended . It will produce gorgeous green grass in about 2 weeks.
- EZ patch lawn repair Try the EZ Patch Repair product on the empty spots if you have St. Augustine grass. It is the first patching product for St. Augustine grass in the market and makes the bare spots turn green amazingly quickly.
- Dog Spot Grass Repair Pre-Mixed Spray This quickly and effectively covers the Brown Burn spots your pet leaves on lawn.
Approach : Tackle The Fertilizer Burn
In some cases, the ugly bare patches are a result of the grass suffering a fertilizer burn- these are the brown spots that crop up a few days after fertilizing a lawn.
To be clear, the trigger is the excess salt from the fertilizer building up and ultimately burning the grass.
Now, if this is what youre noticing, try this procedure:
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Weeding It Like A Pro
- Use a selective herbicide – if you dont want to dig them up, spray a selective herbicide on weeds since it destroys the weeds while sparing the grass.
- Spray pre-emergent herbicide- after you successfully remove the annoying weeds, consider spraying a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent the germination of new weed seeds.
Quick Note: Weeds are extremely selfish and can steal nutrients that are vital for good grass growth, leaving you with an awful-looking dry brown stretch of grass.
What To Do If Your Bare Spot Is Exposed Soil
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Preparing Bare Spots For Repair
Mow damaged spots and surrounding areas at normal spring mowing levels, and then remove dead or damaged grass to expose clean soil. If leveling is needed, add or remove topsoil, rake spots briskly, and then smooth the surface. Loose, smooth soil invites new seedlings to take hold.
Delay adding pre-emergent herbicides or weed-and-feed products to repair areas. Unless applied at least five to six weeks before seeding, these products hamper seed germination and rooting.
What Causes Bald Spots
Thin or bare areas of a lawn can be a result of a number of lawn care issues, such as
- Heavy foot traffic, resulting in soil compaction
- Debris and items covering lawns
- Misapplication of control products
It’s important to investigate what the underlying issue might be, and try to remedy it to avoid future bald patches. If you’re no detective, speak to a lawn care professional and they’ll look at things such as your soil condition and help you get to the bottom of it.
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How To Revive Grass: Make A Plan & Examine Your Yard
Power aerators and power rakes can usually be rented by the hour, half day or day. Because these two machines are in high demand , ensure that your work plan will flow uninterrupted by reserving both machines in advance. Save some money by first renting the aerator, then picking up the power rake when you drop off the aerator. Rejuvenate your lawn using these strategies:
- Budget your time: You should be able to aerate and power rake up to 5,000 sq. ft. in three to four hours.
- Avoid renting aerators that are equipped with spikes and only roll over the lawn and perforate it. The core aerators that actually remove soil plugslike the one shownare vastly superior because they open up more soil volume.
- Recruit a buddy who has either a pickup truck or a minivan to help wrangle these heavy lawn machines home and back to the rental center. Inquire whether your rental center offers delivery and pickup .
- If your grass is thinned out, adopt a more aggressive plan for total lawn rejuvenation by following the steps shown in Photos 3 and 4.
- If your lawn has excess thatch or youve laid new seed, use the spreader and apply decomposter mix to both accelerate the decay of thatch left in the turf and increase seed germination and rooting .
- Complete any plan by watering your lawn with up to 1/2 in. of water for thin lawns and 1/4 in. for bare soil. Over-watering will wash away the seed and nutrients.
Weed Control & Prevention
As an extra preventative measure against weeds, make sure to use a weed killer. I recommend using a starter fertilizer + weed preventer .
You have to be careful about what you use, because some pre-emergent weed preventers will prevent your grass seed from germinating.
Once your grass is growing, eliminate weeds early by using a post-emergent weed killer. New grass cant withstand a weed killer until its fully grown in, usually after youve mown it 3 or 4 times. After that, its safe to use.
To spot-treat for established weeds, I recommend using the herbicide Tenacity. Theres a video and how-to included in my article on eliminating lawn weeds.
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Applying Your Seeding Mixture
Choose a repair mixture suited to your climate, grass type and sunlight exposure. Premium grass seed, moisture-retaining mulch and stabilized-release fertilizer in Pennington One Step Complete safeguard germinating seed and nourish emerging seedlings until the lawn is ready for normal care regimens.
Smooth the seeding mixture over the soil, applying it at a rate of 1 cup per square foot. This ensures adequate sunlight for germinating and proper seed-to-soil contact for quick, thorough grass establishment. Forget about planting depth and seed stabilization simply cover exposed soil thoroughly, and water the seeding mixture well.
Proper watering is the most important and often the most neglected part of the spot repair process. Moisture-retentive mulch reduces necessary watering and keeps protected seed in place, even on slopes, but expect to water at least once daily. Let weather guide your efforts adjust your watering to keep repaired areas consistently moist, but never soggy.
Keep repaired areas evenly moist until seedlings reach the recommended mowing height for your chosen grass type. For example, a dense shade mixture should reach 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall, and tall fescue should measure 3 to 4 inches, before you reduce watering to a normal weekly or twice-weekly schedule. Seedlings emerge over seven to 21 days after repair, depending on your mix, and reach mowing height in three to four additional weeks.
How Do You Fix Thin Spots In Your Lawn
4.4/5Repair thinbare spotsPatchRepairthealawnbare spots
Considering this, how do I fix bare spots in my lawn?
Repairing Bare Spots
One may also ask, how can I make my grass grow back? How to Grow Back Grass in Dead Patches
Correspondingly, what causes bald patches in lawn?
Bald spots in our lawn can be caused by several things, but the most common cause is pet urine. Pets, especially dogs, have very strong urine, and they also tend to use the same spot over and over. This kills the grass in that spot and leaves the homeowner with unsightly patches.
Will grass fill in bare spots on its own?
Preparing the soil, amending it with compost and fertilizer and, above all, maintaining irrigation will get grass regrowing quickly. Keep the area free from traffic for several weeks, and you will have the bald patches repaired in less than a month.
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Fix Any Issues Before You Repair Bare Spots In The Lawn
You probably knew this one was coming.
The next step in the process would be to fix any issue that was responsible for causing the bare spots in the first place. We mentioned a bunch of different scenarios above and it could even be a combination of these. Its not uncommon for a single lawn to deal with multiple issues at the same time.
Perhaps you had a chemical burn in one area but you also have a shaded spot where grass struggles to grow.
Different lawn problems are going to require different approaches so a proper diagnosis is key. And as we mentioned, depending upon whats happening on your lawn, you may require more than one solution.
Sometimes making a proper lawn diagnosis can be difficult as many problems tend to mimic one another. But bringing in a lawn care professional can help ensure you get on the right track.
Whatever you do, you definitely want to get to the bottom of whats going on before you spend money on replacing the lawn. The last thing that you want is to see your lawn go right back to where it was .
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Plant At The Right Time Of Year
The goal is to get the roots established before environmental conditions become too harsh for the baby grass to survive. The best time to repair bare patches is when the grass is actively growing, says Waltz. That depends on where you live. Warm season grasses grow during the warm times of year, which is about May to mid-September. Cool season grasses grow during the cooler times of year until the soil freezes, which is roughly December to February. If youre not sure what you have, talk to your local university coop extension service. Both seed and sod are good options for patching.
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Wear And Tear Of Your Lawn Can Cause Dead Spots
Where are your dead patches in your lawn? If its in high traffic areas then then this will likely be the cause of grass being unable to seed and grow. High traffic areas are most likely going to be at the first point of contact such as just outside your door, side gate or even shed entrance if its in constant use. If this seems to be the case then its unlikely that your going to be able to permanently fix the bald patch on your lawn unless ofcourse your going to reduce the amount of time you spend in your garden!
The best way to overcome this is to replace your high traffic area of lawn with something low maintenance and decorative. For example, why not opt for a new patio? Or if your on a tight budget then simply lay some nice . I have how to guides for both Just follow the links!
How To Fix Brown Patches In Your Lawn
Your lush green grass has been overtaken by dead brown patches and you need to know how to fix dead grass. These unsightly patches of dead spots in your lawn threaten to ruin the beautiful outdoor aesthetic of all your hot summer barbecues and events and spread disease to your grass.
Brown patches are caused by factors including, but not limited to foot traffic, lack of fertilization, fungus, grub infestation, animal urine, chemical spills, and/or drought. Dead grass patches are also more likely to occur in older lawns than younger ones.
Before you start repairing the brown patches on your lawn, study the growth patterns of these areas to see what might be contributing to the dead grass conditions. Understanding the underlying factors will help you avoid recurring brown patches in your yard.
While repairing brown patches is not particularly difficult, you should be aware of best practices and recommendations for the optimal grass regrowth. We are going to equip you with the tools and knowledge for how to fix a brown patch in your lawn through two main methods: reseeding bare spots and patching with sod.
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Water Alone Won’t Work
Most of us know that wishing and hoping bare spots fill in on their own is futile. Did you also know that watering those bare spots and doing nothing else won’t work either? Sure, water is essential for growing a green, healthy looking lawn. But water’s only a part of what you need to fix those dead spots in your lawn and keep them from coming back.
Approach : Apply Sulfur
The other cause of bald, dead patches is pH imbalance in the soil the grass is planted on- low/high soil pH may have started to inhibit the uptake of nutrients leading to yellowing and potential browning of grass.
But to be sure, you need to measure your soils pH first- use this soil pH home testing kit.
If you get a starting pH of 7.2 , you should apply sulfur to the lawn to lower soil pH balance in the quantities suggested below:
| pH result | |
| Loamier/ more clay-based soils | 20 25 pounds of sulfur |
Quick Note: While soil pH preferences tend to vary from one grass type to the next, most grasses thrive when the soil pH is in the range of 5.8 to 7.2. That said, a soil pH of 6.5 is tolerable for most grasses .
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Approach : Eradicate Grubs
If grubs have spent the summer munching on your turf grass roots, brown areas may soon emerge as grass decays.
The fix is to eradicate the grubs by spraying carbaryl over the lawn.
Introducing beneficial nematodes can be a good alternative to the aforementioned grub killer for lawns.
Quick Note: To check if you have a grub-infestation, just dig into any brown patch and try to look for the creatures . As a rule of thumb, finding 10 or more of the creatures per sq. foot of sod points to a grub infestation.
How To Fix Patchy Grass & Thinning Lawns
Patchy, thin grass is usually an indicator of a bigger problem. It may be tempting to simply add fertilizer or spread grass seeds, but trying the wrong solution could actually make things worse. Until you know whats causing the problem, you wont be able to successfully overcome it.
Some causes for thinning grass include:
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