Lawn seems to be dying :-(

We had some turf laid on a previously concreted area in September. The landscapers flattened out the area and added topsoil before laying the turf, which looked good quality. I made sure it was well watered and kept off it for about 2-3 weeks and it was growing well (except for a few yellow patches where my female dog peed). I also top dressed the lawn. Now, since we have had very wet weather, the lawn has loads of bare patches and is very soggy. The bare patches seem slimy and it loks awful I don't want a Bowling green quality lawn. What have I done wrong? I have tried using a fork to improve the drainage, in case that is the reason. There are no weeds as far as I can see. How can I remedy this? We were hoping to sell the house early next year, so is there anything that will help before then - we are hoping to have moved by next spring! Many thanks

 

It sounds as if ground might have been too compacted for good drainage. I planted some grass seed, and laid a few bits of turf in heavily used areas between stepping stones in path, all in last week August- 2nd week Sept. This all took well but some more seeding just a week later has not done nearly so well, just that bit too cool and wet for it, I think. I left top dressing until spring. Try some more forking.
I have 3 dogs [smallish, 2 females, 1 male] and regularly give them some tomato juice with their dried food. They don't seem to mind, and my lawn no longer has yellow patches!
I tried a tip given to me by a landscaper for my grass seed. I mixed the grass seed with moist compost and sand, and kept it until it germinated, then sprinkled the mixture on prepared bare patches. I tried a small cotrol patch sown directly with grass seed at the same time; the pre-germinated seed was tons better. You could try this in Spring if the lawn hasn't improved.
Hope something here might help!

 

Tomato juice Liz, thats interesting, any ideas as to how it works?

 

Hi Joanne,

What you are describing sounds a bit like Fusarium Patch, a fungal disease that tends to affect quality turf at this time of year. Have a look at these pictures and see if it looks similar. You'll need to bear in mind that these pictures are all of very closely mown fine turf, so it may look a bit different on your lawn. The word 'slimy' is generally a good indicator that a fungal disease may be the cause.

I notice you said you dressed the lawn. People have different meanings for this, so are you referring to a fertiliser application, or do you mean adding soil to the surface? If it's fertiliser you applied, then it's another sign in favour of fusarium, which is fuelled by high nitrogen content in a soil. Other factors are shade and constant surface moisture - hard to stop this time of year.

So to fix it, don't add any more fertiliser, and try to open up the garden a little bit so that light is available, and there is wind movement to facilitate surface drying. And don't worry about it - fungal diseases are always present in a healthy soil, but the balance gets tipped one way or another by environmental conditions. You could use a chemical fungicide but it ought to clear up by spring.

 

Your female dog's urine is poisonous to your lawn,
if possible have a special area for your dog to pee,
also the drainage problem is possably the turf people but it could be that there is no grass to absorb all the water,
don't cut the grass too short,
let the grass grow normally and in spring give it a feed, if you want sow some grass seed,
and keep the dog off.