If your garden has any sort of lawn then you should prioritize keeping it looking healthy and vibrant. Lawn problems can be a nightmare to deal with, they are sometimes difficult to get rid of and let’s face it, they look bad. The rest of your garden can look amazing, but if you have dry grass, patchy grass or other lawn problems then it is likely that this is what people will notice. For a vibrant lawn, we’ve listed some common issues and their solutions, so you can get to the root of the problem and get rid of it!
Inadequate watering
The simplest of the issues is the first we are dealing with. Inadequate watering. This is very simple and easy to fix. You’d be amazed how much this can cause issues, however, and how common it is. Many of the dry grass issues can stem from not watering thoroughly or not allowing your grass to get water. Sometimes, people forget that the grass needs water as well.
You can be as simplistic or high tech about getting enough water to your grass as you want to be. Check your sprinklers as it could be a great way to do things, but if not, you can just keep an eye on rainfall and manually water the grass if there is none.
Lawn diseases
There are some fairly common lawn diseases out there. Some are fungi, some cause rings or dry patches. Lawn repair, in this case, can be as simple as finding the right product. There are “patch repair” products to allow you to kill off the disease, and these can be bought from nurseries.
The important thing is to work out which disease you have. If you have a red tinge to the grass you might have “Red Thread”. This occurs with a lack of nitrogen. You can buy lawn treatments and nutrient products to fix these issues. Establish what disease your lawn might have and find the right product to apply to your grass to treat it.
Pests
Pests can include grubs in lawns and some types of insects. Pesticides can be used to treat these issues. You can find generic pesticides and even ones that are safe to use and don’t have negative impacts on the environment.
If grubs in lawns are the issue you can use trichlorfon or carbaryl. You need to use rubber gloves and irrigate the lawn before applying, this will kill off grubs and larvae.
Only use pest control products that are good for your lawn!
Pet damage
Pets can enhance our lives but they can be a pain to deal with, especially when it comes to lawn care. Dogs and cats can both enjoy digging in your grass, and their urine can also kill the grass. The urea in the urine is actually a type of nitrogen, and it isn’t bad for the grass in small amounts, but urine isn’t a small amount.
You may be able to train your dog to go in one place. Alternatively, make sure that after your dog has been you apply water, this can help dilute the urea. It’s not an ideal method. Taking your dog for regular long walks can be a good way to avoid the issue.
If it’s the neighbor’s cats, there are products you can buy to try and stop them from coming into the yard.
Compacted Soil
Compacted soil is when the soil isn’t porous enough, and the air doesn’t get in. Treatments are simple, you need to aerate the soil. You can do this with machinery, but the simplest way is to treat the lawn with a rolling aerator which will simply create loads of holes in the soil to bring air into the compacted area.
Heavy Thatch
An aerator can also be used to treat heavy thatch. This is when the layers of dead grass build-up and weave in with the healthy grass. You can get attachments for your aerator, and rolling these over will help to get some of the thatch out of the grass you have. A little won’t be a problem, but too much can start to kill the grass and damage the soil.
Grub Damage
Grub damage doesn’t have an easy fix, but looking after your lawn and properly maintaining it will help the lawn recover. To get rid of grubs, some pest companies use predatory nematodes. This will reduce the number of grubs in your garden, but won’t fix the damage.
Regular watering, fertilizing and raking and aeration will be key to healthy roots and improving the quality of the grass overall. All lawns have grubs, and they can be an issue for anyone, but they can become a lot to handle.
Patchy grass
Patchy grass can be caused by pretty much any of the issues above. The key is to learn how to fix it. Fertilizing the grass could help, and you may even need to put some grass seed in the patchy areas to stimulate growth once more.
The key is to prevent the patchy grass and make sure it doesn’t occur again. This comes from good lawn repair and lawn maintenance just as much as it does any sort of grass treatment.
Underground Obstructions
If you have underground obstructions such as drainpipes, this can interfere with some of the roots of the grass. It is unlikely that this will cause major issues with your lawn, but it does mean you have to properly maintain the lawn to ensure that no issues and patching in these areas occur. It can happen faster due to the interference with the roots.
Whatever the lawn problems you are dealing with, the key is to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Following tips to maintain healthy soil and a healthy lawn can stop a lot of these problems from ever happening in the first place. Your lawn problem probably isn’t uncommon, and there will be something you can do to treat it!
