How To Fix Your Burned Out Lawn
Is your lawn brown? Bare spots need patching? Overrun with crabgrass and other weeds? Here are a few tips on how to restore your lawn to its green glory.
Zoysia: Naturally green in the heat of summer, environmentally green all year round
Summer heatwaves can be brutal on lawns. In August, drive through any neighborhood and in spite of each homeowner’s valiant efforts, brown spots and burn out will be plentiful.
- A familiar sight
Are your brown spots dead grass or just dormant grass?
As temperatures start to cool, check for green shoots in the brown patches. If you see green, the grass is breaking its dormancy and should start to repair itself as the root structures begin to grow again. If the brown stays brown that spot is probably dead or diseased and needs to be renovated. Due to drought stress, pests may have had their way with it and need to be dealt with. That’s a separate issue.
- cool grasses
Most of what we grow in Pennsylvania are called “cool season grasses“. According to Penn State’s College Of Agricultural Sciences, “root growth is negligible at soil temps over 70 degrees and stops at 77 degrees“ (that’s soil temp, not air temp). At these temps, “roots die off and thin out and the root system continues to weaken as the soil temp heats up.”
But we also have “warm season grasses” in our lawn, like crabgrass. Unfortunately, crabgrass LOVES warm soil temps, which stimulate their growth. So just as your nice, cushy Kentucky Bluegrass starts to die off in the heat, the crabgrass moves right in. You may not have brown patches anymore, but you have tons of unwanted green grasses, aka weeds. What’s a lawn lover to do?
- that dreaded crabgrass
Lawn Surgery
First, you have to remove the weeds. As this is organic lawn care, we don’t use herbicide, we pull weeds by hand. Yes, it takes longer, but when you’re actually down there on your hands and knees, you get an excellent view of what exactly is going on with your lawn. It’s very educational and can sometimes reveal problems you can’t see from 6 feet away.
After you’ve cleared the weeds (and disposed of them), aerate each area with a core aerator or scratch it with a cultivator. If the area is especially bad, you can use a spade to dig the area about six inches deep and flip it over, placing it upside down in the same spot. Then loosen the dirt that’s facing up with a cultivator.
Next, mow your lawn as low as your mower will allow and bag or rake the clippings. Then remove the thatch at the soil surface with a dethatcher or a simple lawn rake. This is important, as you want to be sure that the seed can get down next to the soil.
Choose the right seed for your lawn
Buying the Home Cheapo stuff may not do the trick. Do you have a high traffic area? Shady? Sunny? Good soil? Bad soil? Choose appropriately. Also, don’t buy into the marketing and packaging claims from the seed companies. Seed coatings and blends with fertilizer included are not worth the money and double the cost of the actual seed. Just buy the correct seed, keep it moist and you’ll be fine.
After seeding, add a light coat of bagged compost as a top dressing. The organic matter in the compost will help settle the seed in and will also add the very important organic matter that your lawn can’t live without. You might also want to add a bit of organic fertilizer to help the new growth. Then take the backside of a rake and drag it over the seeded areas to drive the new seed and compost down to the soil. This will keep the seed from getting stuck between blades of grass.
The time to do this is as soon as temps begin to cool, which is right about now through mid October. You want the seed to get a good root set before your grass goes dormant this winter. Then, when spring rolls around your new grass will have a jump start on the weeds which will be competing for nutrients and space.
An excellent resource for more information on your lawn is Penn State’s Center For Turfgrass Science.
Read my follow up: Fixing Your Burned Out Lawn Part 2: Crabgrass
Thanks for the advice! This is great.