[ShawnCarl]

It seems whatever I do, I can't get rid of dead grass blades in my lawn and they never seem to decompose. Dethatching only seems to get rid of about half the dead blades - going over it twice.

Here's a before and after dethatching.

Before

After

The lawn looks OK from a distance, but up close you see lots of dead blades and thin grass that I want to thicken.

I fertilize on a regular basis and these photos are during the wet spring we've had. I'm in the northern Idaho climate.

 

[ShawnCarl]

These don't tend to be clippings, just dead grass blades. I presume from the cold winters we get. Would it be the same issue?

 

[ShawnCarl]

It doesn't matter the time of year for my lawn. It's completely brown in the winter - which is what I expect, but when it comes out of winter, some blades never turn green. We've barely been above 70 for any days so far this year and it's been very cool and wet the past month. But this condition is every year.

I used to think it was a mower issue, but now I'm leaning towards the grass. Here's a video I took near the end of last fall.

What should I do to get a full green lawn?

 

[ShawnCarl]

The house is about 19 years old and the lawn was put in then. I've overseeded each fall for the past 3 years.

I've used multiple mowers and still the same issue, and if I would have zoomed in on the mowing video, you'd see dead blades that are still attached to roots. I just wanted to show what mowing low pulls out.

 

[ShawnCarl]

The original lawn may have contained a lot of fine fescues, and 19 years is long enough for it to overpopulate and become a nuisance. You may want to renovate a small area of your lawn with an excellent new variety of grass this fall and see how that compares to the rest of your lawn next summer. If the new grass solves the problem, you can do the rest of the lawn next fall.

Thank you. Where can I find recommendations for "an excellent new variety of grass"?