Advice required for a dying lawn

[silver_badger_man]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice for my father's lawn. It looks awful (see attached photos). He had new turf laid in the summer and now it looks like this.

He has a dog, which may be burning patches. And he thinks he had issues with leather jackets, so he put down some nematodes.

We're just not sure if we should persevere with the lawn, or switch to gravel or something.

My dad is 78, so we just want something easy to maintain and a nice place to sit in.

Any advice would be most welcome!

Thanks,
Henry.

 

[YumYum]

The dog may be burning up the grass in some spots with urine but I'd doubt it's the whole yard like that.

My first impression is that the ground looks awfully wet. If it stays wet all the time, then the roots are rottening and the grass is dying. Maybe it just rained there though.

Another common issue is the soils pH. You may want to have it checked.

What is that bush in the foreground in the second photo? Looks like it is thriving in that soil.

 

[silver_badger_man]

Hello Yum Yum,

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned that. The soil is mostly sand. I believe the road is in an old sand quarry. Drainage is fairly good I think, it was a wet morning.

Probably pretty acidic, but I'd need to check that.

We also has a problem with a mole or two.

 

[Meadowlark]

How much direct sunlight does it get per day?

 

[Chuck]

If the soil is sand, which it appears to be so, then I would suspect the grass is lacking nutrients. Synthetic fertilizers will leach out fairly soon. My suggestion is to first of all fertilize it with an organic fertlizer and then immediately cover with enough manure based compost to ALMOST cover the grass and then water it in. If it doesn't rain, water about 1 inch once per week.

 

[silver_badger_man]

Thanks for the reply. We'll give that a try.

 

[silver_badger_man]

How much direct sunlight does it get per day?

Hello. I'm not sure exactly. Probably 3 hours or so in the winter months. Maybe 5 in summer.

 

[Meadowlark]

Hello. I'm not sure exactly. Probably 3 hours or so in the winter months. Maybe 5 in summer.

That's part of the problem. 6 hours of direct sunlight is minimum for yard grass. If there is any way to give it more by trimming back limbs and plants, then that would really help. Without sufficient sunlight, it will always be a struggle no matter what soil amendments you make.

 

[YumYum]

Sounds like several problems. Probably not enough sunlight as Meadowlark mentioned. Chuck is probably right too. I'd still check the pH if I could.

 

[Chuck]

Do any of your neighbors have a nice grass lawn growing under similar circumstances?

 

[oneeye]

There's a lot of good insights to go with here. Your grass is mostly dormant because of the season now. The only time you need at least 6 hrs is while the grass is growing during the Summer. I will go with Chuck that your lawn is lacking nutrients because of the sand mostly nitrogen during the growing season.

Since you have sand your nutrients will flush out of the soil with every rain. The best way to hold water in the sandy lawn is to add organic matter to it every year. Top-dress your lawn with a couple of inches of compost or composted manure right before it warms up and your grass will start growing again.

 

[silver_badger_man]

That's part of the problem. 6 hours of direct sunlight is minimum for yard grass. If there is any way to give it more by trimming back limbs and plants, then that would really help. Without sufficient sunlight, it will always be a struggle no matter what soil amendments you make.

Thank you. I don't know if there is much that he can do on this front as a neighbours garden borders his land to the south. I'll have a think about it.

The grass did used to be OK, it wasn't as bad as it is now anyway.

 

[silver_badger_man]

There's a lot of good insights to go with here. Your grass is mostly dormant because of the season now. The only time you need at least 6 hrs is while the grass is growing during the Summer. I will go with Chuck that your lawn is lacking nutrients because of the sand mostly nitrogen during the growing season.

Since you have sand your nutrients will flush out of the soil with every rain. The best way to hold water in the sandy lawn is to add organic matter to it every year. Top-dress your lawn with a couple of inches of compost or composted manure right before it warms up and your grass will start growing again.

Thanks. I'll do that. Would you add grass seeds and fertiliser at the same time. Or would you re turf it again?

Any tips for getting rid of moles?

 

[silver_badger_man]

Do any of your neighbors have a nice grass lawn growing under similar circumstances?

Good point. I'll go and have a look about. I believe they do.