Small brown problem

Hey all,

My lawn is going brown in places and I am not sure why. The rest of the lawn is a nice thick carpet of green.

There is hardly any traffic on the lawn, and no dogs wee on it, as you can see from the photos it looks quite bad on the effected areas. It has been like it for about a week now and I was hoping it would sort itself out, but it seems to be spreading.

Also, the grass towards the back )not in the photo) isn't as springy as the rest, if you stand on it the grass flattens and stays flattened, but it doesn't happen anywhere else.

Any ideas :(

 

From that far away I'd guess that it's just dry patches caused by the recent hot weather.
Stick a fork in these areas and then give them a good watering, should come back in no time.

 

Many thanks Kris, I will give this a go tomorrow.

Here is a closer photo.

 

Hmm, there is a possibility it could be a fungal infection. See if watering sorts it out first though, as that is the most likely.

 

I really hope it isn't fungal :(.

It's been raining most of the day here so haven't had a chance to poke holes in the lawn, does it really need it though as the lawn was only layed 2 months ago, and about 12" of new topsoil was layed before hand.

would it be better to use some metal BBQ skewers, the garden fork would leave huge holes where as the skewer would leave less noticeable holes.

Sorry for the questions, my knowledge of this is non existant as it is the first lawn I have had to care for.

Cheers

 

Interesting that it is a new lawn. Unfortunately, it is more likely to be fungal in that case. Turf gets very stressed when moved and the constant watering needed to bed it in creates a haven for fungal spores to germinate.

It's not a disaster though, and I wouldn't turn to chems yet.
Definitely spike it, and with something a lot bigger than a BBQ skewer! Aim for holes about 1cm (1/2 inch) wide, and there's no point otherwise. You just need to break through the turf crust and get some air and moisture down to the roots. The lawn will be much better for it in a few weeks. Give it a good watering and see how it gets on.

Drop back in a few weeks and let us know!

 

I would check turf has rooted , should have done after 2 months, if you cannot lift turves then it has. Then as Kris says give it a good spiking this will let air get to roots and let moisture move from surface down through soil.

 

thanks guys,

It has definatly rooted . I gave one area a good spiking today and then a water, if that area improves I will do the rest.

I read that the brown patch fungus is usually circular, while one area is kind of circular, the other effected areas seem to be long straight sections (not sure if this means anything).

Will keep the thread updated as to whether it improves over the next few days/weeks, although one area didn't look as bad today, but that may be my wishful thinking or even down to the light.

 

Quick update,

Lawn now looks as good as new, I spiked a small area and watered, this recovered after a few days so I did the rest of the browning areas and soaked it, these too have now all but recovered.

It was quite hard to get the fork into the ground in areas and I had to jump up and down on the fork to get it in which surprised me as everything has only been down for a couple of months.

Because of the layout of the houses around me, my garden is in a wind tunnel and even a slight breeze can feel a lot stronger than it is, I guess all this wind is drying everything out faster than normal. The patio is normally dry within a few minutes of any rain stopping and my flower beds are a nightmare to keep damp, I could give them a decent soak and then turn the top layer over and it is dry.

I have read everywhere that watering to mush is bad, but I need to start watering more than recommended it seems

 

Glad to hear there is an improvement!
If it is that hard to get a fork into it though, I would seriously consider getting it hollow-tined properly before the hard soil really starts to impact the lawn.