11 Common lawn problems and their solutions – The Best Guide

Lawns are a place where you can enjoy calm and pleasant weather outside with a cup of coffee in your hand or can chit-chat and have a family time after work in the evening. Enjoying early morning breakfast in a lush green lawn has its own beauty without any match and in order to attain such a beautiful healthy place, you need to keep your lawn healthy with fertilization, watering your lawn enough and mowing it in a proper manner with an ideal lawn mower of your choice. Even if you proudly own a lush green lawn, you may still be facing some of the common lawn problems. Knowing how to deal with these common issues would make maintaining a lawn much easier for you and you will enjoy the deal. If you have brown patches, weeds, pests or other issues, these tips would give you a complete guideline of how you can deal with these issues.

Check if your lawn is healthy?

It is not true that a lush green beautiful appearing lawn is a healthy lawn. There may be problems of pests, weeds and other common issues that you can’t judge by looking at the lawn. If your lawn isn’t healthy and none of the below-mentioned problems may appear common, you may dig a patch of soil from your lawn and may take it to a professional expert for analysis. Some of the problems that we have found common in various lawns are summarized here:

Common problems of lawns and their solutions

1. If the area under a tree has no grass growing around it: Some areas under the shade of your trees in the lawn may not have grass grown. For such areas in northern climatic regions, you may plant some shade tolerating fine fescues while in the southern region, you may plant tall fescue.
2. If you have a slope in your lawn with no grass growing over it: Sometimes you may witness a hot and dry slope with no greenery established over it. For such areas in your lawn, try deep watering the area. You may also lay sod or hydroseed plant seeds that are covered in a special material that keeps them from drying out.
3. If your lawn has some bare patches: For bare patches, you may try reseeding those places. During the spring season or in early fall, you may scratch the bare patch using a ground rake and then sprinkle seeds in that area. Use stakes and strings to mark that area off for gentle watering. Make sure that the area remains moist for some weeks and water daily if needed. If the problem is high traffic, you may make a patio surface or a path over it.
4. If you have areas with overgrown weeds: For areas that are covered with weeds, you may apply herbicide during the spring and fall season. Application of herbicide would kill weeds. If the problem still persists and is not resolved in a year or two, you may need to replant your lawn and kill all the existing growth with a non-selective herbicide.
5. If the lawn has brown spots and other threads (web-like feature): If grass and thatch begin to have web-like threads or wide brown spots in the early spring season, you may reduce shade and fertilization. In order to improve this condition, you must improve the drainage system and apply fungicide at the beginning of fall.
6. If the lawn has brown patches during late summer season: Check these brown patches by digging some areas and search for small grubs which are likely to be the cause of these conditions. You may apply Isofenphos, diazinon or Chlorpyrifos to these areas after the eggs are laid. You must check with your local Cooperative service for exact timing of applying these.
7. If the lawn has died off circular patches: The green circular patches that die off in a lawn are called fairy rings. These areas may also include the growth of mushrooms. You need to aerate the area and apply fertilizer. You must keep the lawn moist for 4-5 days.
8. If the lawn has gray spots: Dollar spots usually cause gray spots appearing around your lawn. These spots are merged together and they make large straw areas like cobwebs. These are usually witnessed to grow more with dew. You must use fertilizer and apply fungicide to get rid of these.
9. If the leaf blades have small orange pustules: The common cause of these orange spots is rust. Fertilize and keep your lawn area well watered. Mow your lawn with a properly maintained lawn mower more frequently and remove all clippings. You should apply fungicide if the problem still exists.
10. If the growth of mushroom is multiplying in your lawn: Mushrooms are difficult to get rid of completely and even if you pull each one of them out, you won’t be able to get rid of it completely. For temporary relief from the growth of mushroom, you should improve your drainage system and must eradicate decaying organic matter. Grind the stumps down, rake clippings of grass and dig lumber that is buried. Aerate, dethatch and replace mulch that is old.
11. If the lawn has seasonal water swamps: This issue can be dealt with my planting plants that are water-tolerant. You should plant shrubs and perennials that would tolerate pooling of water and even would tolerate droughts. Excess of water will be captured by these plants, shrubs and amended soil and the water will slowly penetrate through the lawn surface rather than standing as a swamp.

Conclusion

The aforementioned are some of the common issues that lawn owners face. Apart from these, there may appear some problems specific to your climate and region, so you may also consult your local supervision or a reliable nursery to see for the cure of those issues. These solutions would prove true in maintaining a healthy lawn throughout the seasons around the year.