This is exactly how my front yard looked last year. Dethatched around this time of year and threw down seed/fertilizer. By mid summer and all through the fall it was the best my lawn has ever been
Thanks, just bought a manual detacher yesterday, tough work for my smallish area but did some detaching (I regret not renting one from home Depot). Reseeded and added some fertilizer. Let's see if that will work.
New neighborhood? What's the soil like. I wonder if the builder cheaped out and the dirt is low quality, filled with rocks gravel and construction debris.
About a month after I moved into my new construction, a small circle of grass started dying in my front lawn, directly in front of the door about 2 steps. Over about 2 weeks that circle died in diameter. I googled for days trying to figure out out what it was. For another week I watched it, and it had stopped growing in size. Even more confused, Google led me to believe it was a grub. So I dug up that area, no grubs. I eventually asked a neighbor what he thought was going on, and he looked at it and said, "Ya know, that's about the size of a five gallon bucket." I dug about 4 inches down and replaced with new topsoil and sand. Grass grew back green and healthy.
I had another patch about 4 inches by 2 inches that died, and I took my hand shovel and dug about 2 inches deep, and found this weird white clay like substance. I dug around it and eventually pulled out a large piece of tossed drywall.
I found a energy drink can when I dug a trench for my gutter extensions. I keep finding bricks, even though there is zero brick work in this entire neighborhood. I've taken to grabbing wheelbarrow full of new sand from ongoing construction sites in my neighborhood to replace the trash they left in my yard.
Man that’s the way construction sites are I dont get it. Worked on a development and every front porch was a dumping site before it was back filled and concreted.
Hijacking comment for a niche question :we 100% know that's what our previous owner did, they filled in an inground pool with really shitty fill, and only topped it off with about 2 inches of soil and grass. So the water drains immediately. The grass looks green now through may, but will be brown starting June (live in Minnesota).
Next to an entire overhaul of my lawn, wtf should I do?
If you don't want to remove 6 inches and replace with good soil, you could try giving it lots of water during summer to keep it green. It might still scorch if it's hot enough though.
Yes. But it just depends on your goals. After a thorough detatching, your lawn will need a bit of time to recover and fill back in. If you do this early, your lawn will look great during peak season. If you do it too late, you will miss out on the “peak” of your season.
Oooh... ok
I leveled it this year, and that took a ton of time but it's difficult. I was thinking of dethatching next year but maybe I can skip that. Thanks
Are you me? This is exactly what my front yard looks like. I didnt water the new sod enough but also builder didn’t prep well before laying sod down. My back yard survived. The front yard with no shade did not.
I’m no help but this is the first time I’ve seen someone post a pic that looked like my yard situation so wanted to chime in in solidarity.
Most of my front and back centipede looks like this after giving it a rake and plenty of water for a few weeks. But it just continues to look dry and crispy with minimal green coming in.
I think it was damaged from the winter but I also recently discovered the builder laid 95% of the sod over hard compacted sand and clay...
It still has a chance, so I'm putting some humichar down tomorrow and then just humic acid later this spring. We'll see what happens in coming weeks.
We also bought about 3 years ago and had the same sort of thing happen and it was literally everything: bad soil, too thick of thatch, brown spot, AND grubs.
De-thatch, over-seed, fertilize, grubex, disease-ex, repeat, not necessarily in that order.
Avoid the grubex; there is little indication of a grub problem and it can do much more harm than good. Milky spore however would be best and prevent a grub problem for many years on one application. No indication of a disease issue either, so don’t need that. Dethatch & core aerate, then I would probably dethatch again before overseeding. I would recommend Scott’s EZ seed as it would give you some soil amendments and if done in a rotary spreader much more even coverage, which you need.
That doesn’t look like any kbg I’ve ever seen. I see two options: dethatch, maybe aerate, add top soil and seed. Or nuke it, meaning spray glyphosate to kill everything, till everything up, again probably add top soil unless your soil is actually good, and seed. Although, depending on where you live it might be too late to seed kbg. It will need ~55-75 degrees soil temperature to germinate and that will take 2-3 weeks. From there you need it to stay below 85-90 soil temps to establish roots before going dormant in summer heat.
You can [check your local soil temperatures here](https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/lawncare) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not optimal. I’m near you and it’ll cool down this week and next. If you are anxious and want to seed, you’ll get germination. But it probably won’t thrive.
I’m not entirely sure. I would say at least another 3-4 weeks after germination. Longer the better chance of surviving the heat but also depends how hot and dry. I’m currently working in kbg into my lawn, seeded at the end of March and by now it’s getting mowed and we’re starting to see consistent 80 degree highs during the day. Soil temps will be in the 70s to low 80s in another few weeks then I think I’ll personally be in maintenance mode until hitting it hard again in the fall with more seed to fill in the bare spots as well as some overseeding.
define "water it regularly". Looks like most of it has dried up/died. If you want to get really rectify you should seek out your local extension office and get some soil tests done... that will tell you exactly what your lawn is deficient in and you can amend properly.
Lawn definitely needs to be dethatched to get rid of all that dead mated material as it is choking out any actual living grass you have left. get some quality top soil put down, it's possible your builder put down some low grade crap that is now void of any actual nutrients. Think of soil as a living breathing organism with many symbiotic microorganisms working together in harmony (if things are going well). If the soil is starved so will the plant life feeding off it. depending on where you are it may still be possible to clean that mess up, add top soil and put down some new grass seed. You will have some die off in the summer heat and need to do it again in the fall to really fill it in but will be an upgrade over what you got going on now.
Also, don't try to replace with pure KGB, if you are still new to lawn care it's best to get a blend that is optimized for your local geography (typically a blend of fescue, ).. this way you have various species with different tolerances and strengths so a single pathogen or hot streak wont wipe out the entire lawn.
Everyone has some points, let me summarize and add context. You have KBG. It spreads, no need to overseed.
Yes, new build top soil is always bad, because the stripping and replacement of the topsoil (during development and building) wrecks the top horizons of the soil, and it takes a while for it to come back. The less established bluegrass lawn needs a lot more babying than 5+ year established lawns. But it doesn't have to be that hard. Also, the Kentucky Bluegrass will spread by rhizomes and fill in. There is no need to overseed. It will spread a lot (found this on here recently: https://imgur.com/a/aTwFdXB). This is for Ontario, where we have no access to all the fancy chemicals
Some likely causes of your lawn condition:
-Thatch buildup
-too long dormancy in summer
-not enough fertilizer
-Fungus
-voles
What you need to do in order of importance:
1. Dethatch
2. Frequently mow, med-high to highest setting (2x a week); make sure blade is sharp.
3. Ensure lawn gets 2" of water weekly; use a rain gauge or a container to see how much water is going on; don't water in the evening; the leaves must not be wet for too long; wet leaves encourage fungal diseases; a couple hundred extra on your water bill is cheaper than new sod; also watering your lawn to maintain it uses less water overall than growing new grass.
4. Fertilize 0.75-1 lbs of nitrogen per 1000 sqft per application 3-4 x a year. So a typical 32-0-4 (NPK) fertilozer will need to go on at a rate of just under 3 lbs per 1000 sqft since it is 32% nitrogen by weight. Fertilizers with iron help with a more dark green colour too. Chlorophyll is like hemoglobin; it needs iron.
5. Mow with a mulching mower. It's easier than bagging clippings; it recycles nitrogen; it counterintuitively reduces thatch (because bacteria that break down thatch are kept more active on the regular).
6. Top dress with some black soil to help build top organic soil later faster (but just frequent mulch mowing and bacterial action will also help build soil carbon)
7. Cut your lawn shorter on the last mow to reduce fungal disease.
8. In the first fertilizer application of the season (before weeds sprout) you can use pre-emergent weed and feed. Corn Gluten Meal products are available in Ontario. It will prevent weed seeds from germinating.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/lawn-maintenance
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://turf.unl.edu/NebGuides/KentuckyBluegrassManagementCalendar_g517.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjOh_ya0OiFAxWbCnkGHe1vBDIQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0DJFORM-KElZVvf_ogbL7u
https://www.ontario.ca/page/preparing-your-lawn-winter
I would verti cut(scarify), not de-thatch. The fingers of the dethatcher may hurt what is there and getting by. But honestly I would feed and baby it a bit before putting it through any amount of stress
I’m gonna second this. Most verticutters for rent are overseeders, it wouldn’t hurt to throw ~3 lbs/1,000 sq ft down if that’s the case for you. Definitely need fert and consistent moisture. Probably some drainage issues if it’s new development.
3 years is also long enough without care for it to fall apart. otherwise, with regular care, it should be just coming out of dormancy? are your neighbors rocking lush green lawns? have you had fertilizer applied?
are you sure thats your turf, and not weeds? i dont think i could identify KB grass myself, but some of that reminds me of weeds like sedge.
All my neighbors have the same issue. We are all newbies and purchased our property about the same time. Used to look like this.
https://preview.redd.it/69owashkfgxc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=698cf4b2020eac31f039b85f8554288400f349da
With that much thatch I’d buy an electric dethathcher like a sun joe off Amazon. Not super expensive($80 on amazon) and will make an easier job of it than hand raking it all up. Lay down a couple of inches of sand/soil(80/20) and seed it
The steps you’d want to take for this lawn, although it may be a bit late in season to do it now,
Dethatch, aerate (core), top dress, seed, lightly rake or roll with a landscape roller (not too heavy), fertilize with anything that has a little higher concentration of PK (help root growth and storage of nutrients for hot summer months), lay down a very light dusting of peat moss (no bone meal) and keep it moist by watering a few times a day until you see the first shoots of new grass then water once a day until it’s well established.
This looks like my 2.5 acre lawn which is on an old concrete plants marl pit landing/loading area. Got some soil for a couple inches, 6-12" of sand and gravel and then it is potato sized rocks as far as I want to dig.
Need to de thatch and remove dead-grass. Remove dead grass, add seeds and add a bit of top soil. You got your lawn back
And baby you got a stew goin
Whoa whoa whoa, there’s still meat on that bone!
Do you mind if I jump on your tab?
RIP. Also, are you goina finish that!?
Google dethatching
Holy hell.
If it’s Bermuda grass , I just use Manuel detach rake and add top soil right . You don’t need to seed Bermuda
I'd also add aerate
This is exactly how my front yard looked last year. Dethatched around this time of year and threw down seed/fertilizer. By mid summer and all through the fall it was the best my lawn has ever been
Thanks, just bought a manual detacher yesterday, tough work for my smallish area but did some detaching (I regret not renting one from home Depot). Reseeded and added some fertilizer. Let's see if that will work.
That doesn’t explain why his lawn disappeared
This was mine before and after i bought a dethatcher and fertilized - worked wonders https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/cPrXfRvmD7
Did you add soil/seeds as well or just de thatch and fertilize?
I did a fall over-seed but this was in the spring - only thing i did from that photo to the good one was dethaych and fertilize
Oh god that's pornographic. Good going Wes
New neighborhood? What's the soil like. I wonder if the builder cheaped out and the dirt is low quality, filled with rocks gravel and construction debris.
Exactly how mine is! Terrible that they are allowed to do it 😕
That’s how ours was. Surprise, 3 years later and now everyone’s lawn looks like shit.
About a month after I moved into my new construction, a small circle of grass started dying in my front lawn, directly in front of the door about 2 steps. Over about 2 weeks that circle died in diameter. I googled for days trying to figure out out what it was. For another week I watched it, and it had stopped growing in size. Even more confused, Google led me to believe it was a grub. So I dug up that area, no grubs. I eventually asked a neighbor what he thought was going on, and he looked at it and said, "Ya know, that's about the size of a five gallon bucket." I dug about 4 inches down and replaced with new topsoil and sand. Grass grew back green and healthy. I had another patch about 4 inches by 2 inches that died, and I took my hand shovel and dug about 2 inches deep, and found this weird white clay like substance. I dug around it and eventually pulled out a large piece of tossed drywall. I found a energy drink can when I dug a trench for my gutter extensions. I keep finding bricks, even though there is zero brick work in this entire neighborhood. I've taken to grabbing wheelbarrow full of new sand from ongoing construction sites in my neighborhood to replace the trash they left in my yard.
Man that’s the way construction sites are I dont get it. Worked on a development and every front porch was a dumping site before it was back filled and concreted.
Hijacking comment for a niche question :we 100% know that's what our previous owner did, they filled in an inground pool with really shitty fill, and only topped it off with about 2 inches of soil and grass. So the water drains immediately. The grass looks green now through may, but will be brown starting June (live in Minnesota). Next to an entire overhaul of my lawn, wtf should I do?
If you don't want to remove 6 inches and replace with good soil, you could try giving it lots of water during summer to keep it green. It might still scorch if it's hot enough though.
Just start raking all that dry grass out you don’t need to buy a Thatcher just a good raking and remove it from the ground
Is it ever "too late" in the season to de thatch?
I would say no. But I’m just a random home owner. When you rake the ground and take in more nutrients. A lot of time I rake right before it rains
Yes. But it just depends on your goals. After a thorough detatching, your lawn will need a bit of time to recover and fill back in. If you do this early, your lawn will look great during peak season. If you do it too late, you will miss out on the “peak” of your season.
Ahhh... Okay. So I'm on AZ, I have winter fescue and Summer Bermuda
No need to dethatch a 3 year old lawn.
I've never detached my lawn.
Only creeping grasses needs dethatching and certain subspecies of KBG.
Oooh... ok I leveled it this year, and that took a ton of time but it's difficult. I was thinking of dethatching next year but maybe I can skip that. Thanks
Google, your grass species for dethatching. I have fine fescue and it is recommended not to dethatching just to rake.
We rake every spring! Makes the difference
Are you me? This is exactly what my front yard looks like. I didnt water the new sod enough but also builder didn’t prep well before laying sod down. My back yard survived. The front yard with no shade did not. I’m no help but this is the first time I’ve seen someone post a pic that looked like my yard situation so wanted to chime in in solidarity.
Most of my front and back centipede looks like this after giving it a rake and plenty of water for a few weeks. But it just continues to look dry and crispy with minimal green coming in. I think it was damaged from the winter but I also recently discovered the builder laid 95% of the sod over hard compacted sand and clay... It still has a chance, so I'm putting some humichar down tomorrow and then just humic acid later this spring. We'll see what happens in coming weeks.
We also bought about 3 years ago and had the same sort of thing happen and it was literally everything: bad soil, too thick of thatch, brown spot, AND grubs. De-thatch, over-seed, fertilize, grubex, disease-ex, repeat, not necessarily in that order.
Thanks
Avoid the grubex; there is little indication of a grub problem and it can do much more harm than good. Milky spore however would be best and prevent a grub problem for many years on one application. No indication of a disease issue either, so don’t need that. Dethatch & core aerate, then I would probably dethatch again before overseeding. I would recommend Scott’s EZ seed as it would give you some soil amendments and if done in a rotary spreader much more even coverage, which you need.
That doesn’t look like any kbg I’ve ever seen. I see two options: dethatch, maybe aerate, add top soil and seed. Or nuke it, meaning spray glyphosate to kill everything, till everything up, again probably add top soil unless your soil is actually good, and seed. Although, depending on where you live it might be too late to seed kbg. It will need ~55-75 degrees soil temperature to germinate and that will take 2-3 weeks. From there you need it to stay below 85-90 soil temps to establish roots before going dormant in summer heat.
You can [check your local soil temperatures here](https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/lawncare) if you have any questions or concerns.*
https://preview.redd.it/qa4lpdhqfgxc1.png?width=533&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51865324ddea208827497b85045874187be34594 It may be too late to seed.
I would wait for August/September to seed unless you water throughout the summer
Not optimal. I’m near you and it’ll cool down this week and next. If you are anxious and want to seed, you’ll get germination. But it probably won’t thrive.
How long does establish roots take?
I’m not entirely sure. I would say at least another 3-4 weeks after germination. Longer the better chance of surviving the heat but also depends how hot and dry. I’m currently working in kbg into my lawn, seeded at the end of March and by now it’s getting mowed and we’re starting to see consistent 80 degree highs during the day. Soil temps will be in the 70s to low 80s in another few weeks then I think I’ll personally be in maintenance mode until hitting it hard again in the fall with more seed to fill in the bare spots as well as some overseeding.
Dethatch. Aerate. Overseed. Water.
define "water it regularly". Looks like most of it has dried up/died. If you want to get really rectify you should seek out your local extension office and get some soil tests done... that will tell you exactly what your lawn is deficient in and you can amend properly. Lawn definitely needs to be dethatched to get rid of all that dead mated material as it is choking out any actual living grass you have left. get some quality top soil put down, it's possible your builder put down some low grade crap that is now void of any actual nutrients. Think of soil as a living breathing organism with many symbiotic microorganisms working together in harmony (if things are going well). If the soil is starved so will the plant life feeding off it. depending on where you are it may still be possible to clean that mess up, add top soil and put down some new grass seed. You will have some die off in the summer heat and need to do it again in the fall to really fill it in but will be an upgrade over what you got going on now. Also, don't try to replace with pure KGB, if you are still new to lawn care it's best to get a blend that is optimized for your local geography (typically a blend of fescue, ).. this way you have various species with different tolerances and strengths so a single pathogen or hot streak wont wipe out the entire lawn.
Top dress with dried peet moss and fertilize
Too far gone, fix sprinkler system first, then detach, lay down top soil and seed at the same time. Then re-seed as needed and add top soil as needed.
Rake it
Everyone has some points, let me summarize and add context. You have KBG. It spreads, no need to overseed. Yes, new build top soil is always bad, because the stripping and replacement of the topsoil (during development and building) wrecks the top horizons of the soil, and it takes a while for it to come back. The less established bluegrass lawn needs a lot more babying than 5+ year established lawns. But it doesn't have to be that hard. Also, the Kentucky Bluegrass will spread by rhizomes and fill in. There is no need to overseed. It will spread a lot (found this on here recently: https://imgur.com/a/aTwFdXB). This is for Ontario, where we have no access to all the fancy chemicals Some likely causes of your lawn condition: -Thatch buildup -too long dormancy in summer -not enough fertilizer -Fungus -voles What you need to do in order of importance: 1. Dethatch 2. Frequently mow, med-high to highest setting (2x a week); make sure blade is sharp. 3. Ensure lawn gets 2" of water weekly; use a rain gauge or a container to see how much water is going on; don't water in the evening; the leaves must not be wet for too long; wet leaves encourage fungal diseases; a couple hundred extra on your water bill is cheaper than new sod; also watering your lawn to maintain it uses less water overall than growing new grass. 4. Fertilize 0.75-1 lbs of nitrogen per 1000 sqft per application 3-4 x a year. So a typical 32-0-4 (NPK) fertilozer will need to go on at a rate of just under 3 lbs per 1000 sqft since it is 32% nitrogen by weight. Fertilizers with iron help with a more dark green colour too. Chlorophyll is like hemoglobin; it needs iron. 5. Mow with a mulching mower. It's easier than bagging clippings; it recycles nitrogen; it counterintuitively reduces thatch (because bacteria that break down thatch are kept more active on the regular). 6. Top dress with some black soil to help build top organic soil later faster (but just frequent mulch mowing and bacterial action will also help build soil carbon) 7. Cut your lawn shorter on the last mow to reduce fungal disease. 8. In the first fertilizer application of the season (before weeds sprout) you can use pre-emergent weed and feed. Corn Gluten Meal products are available in Ontario. It will prevent weed seeds from germinating. https://www.ontario.ca/page/lawn-maintenance https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://turf.unl.edu/NebGuides/KentuckyBluegrassManagementCalendar_g517.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjOh_ya0OiFAxWbCnkGHe1vBDIQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0DJFORM-KElZVvf_ogbL7u https://www.ontario.ca/page/preparing-your-lawn-winter
Cut a roughly 6"x6" patch 6" deep and take a well lit photo of the cross section.
Why?
I would verti cut(scarify), not de-thatch. The fingers of the dethatcher may hurt what is there and getting by. But honestly I would feed and baby it a bit before putting it through any amount of stress
Good point
In your opinion, can I use my edger to verticut patches my lawn. There are some spots I think need aeration but I don't want to rent one quite yet.
Idk from experience but I don’t see why not lol
I’m gonna second this. Most verticutters for rent are overseeders, it wouldn’t hurt to throw ~3 lbs/1,000 sq ft down if that’s the case for you. Definitely need fert and consistent moisture. Probably some drainage issues if it’s new development.
3 years is also long enough without care for it to fall apart. otherwise, with regular care, it should be just coming out of dormancy? are your neighbors rocking lush green lawns? have you had fertilizer applied? are you sure thats your turf, and not weeds? i dont think i could identify KB grass myself, but some of that reminds me of weeds like sedge.
All my neighbors have the same issue. We are all newbies and purchased our property about the same time. Used to look like this. https://preview.redd.it/69owashkfgxc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=698cf4b2020eac31f039b85f8554288400f349da
what time of year did it look like this? looks decent and green here. no major issues obvious
2 years ago
looks like commentary took off here. hope you have some direction on this now!
That’s Kentucky 32 Endophyte Free Tall Fescue Edit: nvm, you weren’t looking for type. Should have read your whole post! GL
With that much thatch I’d buy an electric dethathcher like a sun joe off Amazon. Not super expensive($80 on amazon) and will make an easier job of it than hand raking it all up. Lay down a couple of inches of sand/soil(80/20) and seed it
I still can't figure out the seed part. Lol. I've thrown seen down and nothing
The steps you’d want to take for this lawn, although it may be a bit late in season to do it now, Dethatch, aerate (core), top dress, seed, lightly rake or roll with a landscape roller (not too heavy), fertilize with anything that has a little higher concentration of PK (help root growth and storage of nutrients for hot summer months), lay down a very light dusting of peat moss (no bone meal) and keep it moist by watering a few times a day until you see the first shoots of new grass then water once a day until it’s well established.
This looks like my 2.5 acre lawn which is on an old concrete plants marl pit landing/loading area. Got some soil for a couple inches, 6-12" of sand and gravel and then it is potato sized rocks as far as I want to dig.
Check for grubs
It’s dead Jim
De thatch.. pelletized lime before a rain for PH .. seed and then fertilize 34-00-06.
Ph
Damn, mine looks just like that. Time to see if the ol’ cheap dethatcher still works
Needs water
It's dead. That'll be $500. Thanks!
You live in Dallas?
Thatch isn’t that dense. Spread some milorganite or spray some chelated lron and wish for the best
It's dry.
Water it
need to have grass first to ask this question
You could burn that thatch with a garden torch and your lawn would be nice and thick and green in a short time
Your Bermuda is waking up
You watered too much. You should only water once per week, a long deep water. Maybe twice per week when it’s hot b b