lawn is dead. What should i do to get my lawn ready for reseeding in the fall??

[Jeffd1979]

Well my lawn is officially DEAD.. We have has maybe a .5 inches of rain in the last 6 weeks.. Lawn went from nice and green to completely dead in about 50% of the yard.. I tried watering but after i got my last 200 dollar water bill and seeing no results i finally gave up on that.. I am basically just wanting to get it ready for this fall to reseed. Here is north Carolina we have very hard clay soil.. I herd putting down alot of lime loosens it up.. Father in law also bought an areator.. i thought about running it over about 10 times till it loosens up the soil.. what do you guys think? The neighbor above me that ownes a lawn business says that i should areate it real good and get some top soil and sprinkle it on the top as best i can to get some good soil in the yard...

what do you guys think?

[blaze347]

You might not have that big of problem, a lot of grass will go dormat during periods of drought and heat. Bringing in topsoil wont hurt, but if you had a NICE healthy,green yard before with your current soil then why bother? Make sure you dont have insect damage or some sort of lawn disease killing your grass!
If not, aerate and overseed in the fall.

[Jeffd1979]

Well i think i am going to areate the hell out of the yard tomorrow... There are some areas of the yard that the grass is still green and growing fine.. these areas are places the soil seems to be loose... the places the soil is hard as a rock are teh areas that are totally dead.. the grass is turning an almost dark brown and is totally matted down.. don't think it has any chance of coming back.. is there any chemical treatment i should put down on it after i areate? lime, fertilizer etc??

[MudslinginFX4]

Why would you aerate the lawn this time of year? It won't do anything for the grass right now but cause a mess. Let it stay like it is untill fall. BTW... the grass that was so pretty 6 weeks ago when did you plant it? Did you plant it this spring? I'm worried about if it was new grass the roots not having enough time to grow before we got all of this heat and no rain. Is it fescue? If it was pretty a couple of weeks ago and you don't have a disease or gurbs, it will prob. come back the first rain so don't do anything just yet!

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by ECM LAWN
Why would you aerate the lawn this time of year? It won't do anything for the grass right now but cause a mess. Let it stay like it is untill fall. BTW... the grass that was so pretty 6 weeks ago when did you plant it? Did you plant it this spring? I'm worried about if it was new grass the roots not having enough time to grow before we got all of this heat and no rain. Is it fescue? If it was pretty a couple of weeks ago and you don't have a disease or gurbs, it will prob. come back the first rain so don't do anything just yet!

THe whole lawn was planted last fall then the house was built.. I reseeded in the spring so yes some was probably new grass... I have watered the lawn and no matter how much i do it does not seem to help.. How could i tell if i have a disease? I doubt it is one because everyone elses lawn is doing the same thing.. but give me some stuff to look for..

[MudslinginFX4]

Well if everyone elses lawn looks like that then it sounds to me like it just needs lots and lots of water. But don't quote me on it, still may be something else! Is it a new neighborhood? There are a lot of factors to determining what is wrong, I honestly think your best bet would be to have someone come out there and look at it. Maybe some one on this forum in that area.

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by ECM LAWN
Well if everyone elses lawn looks like that then it sounds to me like it just needs lots and lots of water. But don't quote me on it, still may be something else! Is it a new neighborhood? There are a lot of factors to determining what is wrong, I honestly think your best bet would be to have someone come out there and look at it. Maybe some one on this forum in that area.

My house is new but the houses next to me are not... I have a feeling the soil on my lawn is not the best.. my lot was totally wooded before my house was here and it was on a slight hill so they had to cut down about 10 feet of dirt so the soil my lawn has on top was 10 feet under ground a year ago.. so i am sure that has something to do with it..

[ThreeWide]

I'm guessing you have fescue.

That being the assumption, it can take a couple of seasons to establish a good stand in your clay soil. Add to that the lack of rain in NC of late, and you have dormant turf. It may not be dead at the root level.

It is also likely that your builder removed the topsoil when grading the property, which is par for the course these days.

It is very difficult to give fescue enough water in those conditions. I wouldn't advise doing anything besides watering and until September. Mow it at about 4 inches if possible where it is still green. Whatever you do, do not fertilize until September. Lime can be applied to your soil at any time, but remember it takes a few months for it to take effect. Most people apply lime in the fall.

In September, plan on aerating and applying new seed. If you follow this plan, you will be much better off next spring.

[Jeffd1979]

Here is my lawn last fall!
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/house3.jpg

Here it is now
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn/lawn1.jpg
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn/lawn2.jpg
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn/lawn3.jpg
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn/lawn4.jpg


the brown areas above just basically go to powder when you walk on it.. i guess i am just out of luck until fall.
:(

[KY GRASSLANDS]

Jeff, just wait until september mid sept when the high tempertures start to calm down. aerate the lawn go over it twice (not the ten time method) what you want to do is apply 6-8 lbs of seed per thousand square ft. and at the same time apply a starter fert with it like 10-10-10. As far as apply lime i would first get a soil sample before i would do a lime application.

[Green Pastures]

Several things I immediately notice.

1. Looks like you're cutting it to low. MINIMUM of 3" this time of year. Raise your mower to it's highest setting and keep it there except for late in the fall for leaf cleanups.

2. I suspect when the building contractor graded the property he took away all the fertile topsoil and left you with clay. BAD move, and unfortunately I see it all the time. You have crappy soil with no nutrients and a poor catation exchange capacity.

I suggest looking into topdressing with an organic and recycled product like Nutragreen in the fall prior to an extreme aeration, fertilizing and reseeding. Nutragreen is a mixture of recycled yard waste and treated human waste. Very nutritious for lawns and puts a great deal of organic material into the clay helping it to break up and hold water longer without rotting the roots of the plants as clay does.

3. What time of day are you watering? Early morning is optimum. Evening is the worst time to water. Daytime is the most wasteful due to evaporation. Water between 4 and 7 am.

4. How often are you watering and how much per application? Fescue needs 1" of water per week. Better to water deep once a week than a light sprinkle daily.

5. Have a soil sample taken. Find out what nutrients are lacking and which you have an excess of. Fertilize accordingly in the fall when you overseed. Find out what the ph level of the soil is. I'm betting you have highly acidic soil. 40# of lime per 1000 sq. foot of lawn is needed to drop the ph level by 1 percentage point. Put down lime accordingly, this can be done now, and again in 6 months. Remember 40# per 1000 sq feet to drop the ph level by 1 point. It's hard to put down to much lime, but your soil can only use about 40# per 1000 in 6 months. GET A SOIL SAMPLE TAKEN then follow the recommendations.

6. You can aerate now to help the lime get into the soil and do it's job and to help break up the soil. Use a core aerator.

RAISE YOUR MOWER TO IT'S HIGHEST SETTING........NOW!

[Green Pastures]

There is another product that I'm sure you can get locally made by Scott's, called Enriched Yard Soil which is excellent for topdressing. It would be more expensive than a bulk product like Nutragreen as it is only sold in bags. We see it here for like $3.50 per 40# bag.

You need at LEAST 1" of a good organic topdressing over the entire lawn. I'd put down 2" myself.

The root of your problem is poor soil.

Address the root of the problem.

Topdressing with a highly organic soil conditioning is the best thing you can do for that lawn. Have to wait till fall though.