My lawn is a patchwork quilt!

Hi folks,I am in dire need of some reassurance from experts.
Our lawn suffered terribly over the summer and our neighbour told us to use Levingtons Mow and feed to help it to recover,which it has to a certain extent and is now looking pretty healthy apart from a lot of Dead Patches and is getting worse.
Hubby wants to dig all of the grass up because he thinks there is something killing it off.
I took photographs of the offending patches and showed them to a Garden Centre chappy,and he told me this looks like I have Foxes,because even though I have a high fence they can climb 15ft!
He told me to buy Evergreen Grass Seed.
I have bought some wondered if this could be foxes.
Please see pics and give me your opinion!
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t96/blueboy8_photo/gardeners corner/lawn003_edited.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t96/blueboy8_photo/gardeners corner/lawn002_edited.jpg


http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t96/blueboy8_photo/gardeners corner/lawn001_edited.jpg

Thankyou guys.

 

Hello Krafty. Well that does look as if a dog has been peeing on the grass, but can't say for certain. Have you ever seen a fox in the garden, or heard them ?

In my last garden I had foxes came about but I saw them during the day.
I never found any damage on the grass from them peeing there but I did sometimes find their droppings.
I found the things they had brought into the garden - odd shoes, childrens toys etc from neighbouring gardens and sometimes little things disappeared. And sometimes I heard them barking.
If they're there they will have a regular route they use to get into your garden so you could have a good look round for tell tale signs - little worn paths, flattened grass etc.
But maybe it's not foxes.

 

Hi Alice,
No, never seen a fox in the garden but as we live surrounded by fields,they are definately in the area as we can hear them at night.
As for droppings,hubby noticed today that something had left it's calling card on the grass..it definately wasn't our cat..quite a bit larger than cat droppings.
We have no pathway through the grass that we can see,but it's difficult to check because of all the patches..lol.!
Crazy.
I will have a mooch around and see if there are any of the signs you give..Thanks very much for your advice..very helpful...wonder if it's worth putting the seed down now because our visitors may start weeing somewhere else..(sigh).

 

Hi Krafty. I would keep the grass seed until spring - but I live in Scotland. It might be fine to sow where you are. See what others think.

 

Definitely sow now in Essex, no problem at all.

It certainly does look like it could be Foxes and if so until you stop them coming in you may well have new patches appearing over winter. During the winter months you won't be able to sow new seed but you could prepare some seed some trays now while you can. Get some pot trays from a garden centre/your shed/your greenhouse. They come with many different indentations to hold pots. Fill the indentations with top soil, firm it slightly then seed. Put the trays somewhere outdoors. Water them to start then let nature take it's course. For larger patches fill propagation trays, preferably the type with drainage holes in. Once grown you'll have a ready supply of sods that you can replace the scorched turf with.

Best course of action though is to ascertain exactly what's causing the problem rather than re-sod your lawn every now and then. Google fox droppings and see if they look familiar. There's often a liberal amount of animal hair which should be fairly obvious.

 

Hi Axl,
I googled Fox droppings and it is indeed what we found yesterday!
Will take your advice of course but the thought of re-sodding gives me nightmares..lol!
Thanks very much for the input,I have sown the new seeds now ..!
I bet he or she starts peeing on the good bits now..I don't want to use a deterent but maybe this is the only way to go!
Anyway..cheers for all the help.

 

Axl, thank you for that brilliant tip for growing grass sods in trays. :thumb:
I would never have thought of it.
I'm sure that will be very helpful to Krafty.