How do you keep grass from dying?
Question:I live in a house and my grass was very green last year but this year it's dead with sprouts of green and brown color. I water it as often as needed but it still remains the same. Every so often, a fertilizer is used but it still doesn't grow. Is there any good advice?
Answers:
Could it have been so green last year cause it was new sod just layed? If so you need a bag of grass seed with anti dandelion killer and grass food included such as scott. Put it down on every corner of your lawn and watch the new baby grass take over. This will be much healthier once it gets going. Get seed at a place with high turnover on their product such as Home Depot.
Lay down some seed and keep watering plenty.
If you are watering it and fertilizing it regularly, it sounds like it may have a fungus.
Grab a clump of grass and see if you can pull it from the roots. If it comes out of the ground easily, you could have a billbug infestation which nibbles away at the roots of grass. Its a rather common summer time problem in our neighborhood.
Your local county extension agent could also give you some good (and free) advice; bring along a sample for them to examine.
Not enough info to tell but I'd bet you over fertilized it last year and killed it. You shouldn't have to fertilize more than twice a year - you can get away with once if you do it in the late fall.
Do not water in the afternoon. Always water in the morning or you will get root rot. Only water it about 3 times a week too. Let your grass grow pretty tall to allow seeding then cut it. Whatever you do, do not cut it to short.
Other than that, you may have insects that are killing your lawn.
Grass is best watered infrequently, for longer periods: this encourages deeper rooting. I'm not sure which variety of grass you planted, some are annual and just live for a year.
You can always 'over seed' with new seed, if there is enough of the old lot to patch up. Otherwise, you may need to start from scratch with either turf or as a fully seeded lawn: this sounds drastic, but I'm not sure how bad the lawn is, and how much is dead.
The best feeding for a lawn is done in fall, with a special fall mix lawn food: this strengthens the roots, and doesn't encourage leaf growth, during winter, which isn't needed. The stronger the roots, the stronger the lawn will be.
Choose your grass variety wisely, there are seed mixes for shady areas, heavily worn spots, fine appearance etc.
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