My lawn sucks. I do the best I can to mow it and water it after the sun goes down every now and then, but that’s as far as my green thumb goes. It’s full of mole hills and I think it’s more weeds than grass. There are several dirt patches where nothing grows, and a lot of the ground is really soft. Soft to the point that my mower seems to tear patches out of the ground here and there when I run it.
I’m in need of some lawn tips. I’m not looking for putting green results, nor am I a Hank Hill type. I just want my lawn to not be blech. Presentable is good enough. I basically would be happy with no sinkholes and more than 50% grass ratio. Any advice is appreciated.
By the way, I live in Seattle if climate is a concern.
If you lived further south, I’d suggest Zoysia grass plugs. Zoysia tends to grow in fast and thick enough to choke out most weeds. The downside is that it grows in fast and thick. You will be mowing every week. If you skip a week then about the only thing that will trim it back is goat.
The soft patches make me wonder what’s going on with your yard - it almost sounds like you need to basically start again, taking it down to bare dirt and getting it properly compacted and levelled, then plant some area-appropriate grass seed.
Sinkholes are often due to rotting wood in the ground. Many developers bury stumps and wood debris when grading the property. Get some topsoil and fill the holes as they show up.
Then you need to plant grass seed in the bare spots. Break the soil up, add a little topsoil, and put the seed down. Water frequently.
Next, you almost certainly need some lawn fertilizer. Don’t get fertilizer on hard surfaces (e.g. sidewalks, driveways, and streets), and sweep it up if you do. Fertilizer runoff is not good for streams and waterways. An application or two a season is usually all you need. A broadleaf weed control application in late spring will help with the weeds. Leave the grass clippings on the lawn if possible by using a mulching mower.
You probably need to check on your soil as well too, seeing if it needs amendments to loosen it up, change the pH, etc. Are other lawns in your area looking okay or is everyone having the same issues?
You should overseed your lawn with new seed. I don’t know the typical grass that grows well in your area, but ask you local lawn and garden expert at the nearest homestore. Overseeding is best done in the Spring or Fall, so now is okay. Follow the directions about watering after initial seed application.
Quit watering at night. You should water early in the morning so that the ground is wet and will allow the grass to stay hydrated throughout the sunny day. Watering at night may let the roots of the grass to stay wet for too long and get root rot.
Fertilize your lawn in the spring and the fall. Many fertlizers come with weed control in them.
These are simple things that can be done easily, and most products can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.
Mole hills and soft patches? Might also be grubs. Or. like someone else said, rotting stumps or other debris.
Patches where nothing grows? Is it shady there all the time?
Here’s my 2 cents.
Mow in the evening, when it is cool. Keep the blade sharp.
Water in the early morning. Night waterings can lead to fungus and rot.
3)Treat for grubs. Try 2 different chemical formulas, about 2 weeks apart.
Treat for weeds. Prefer spot spray, but if they are just everywhere, then treat entire lawn.
Look at lawn. Is it mostly shady or mostly sunny? Go to http://www.ntep.org and look up turfgrasses for your area. Fescues typically do better in shade. Bluegrass typically does better in sun. Overseed your lawn with a mix of good seed.
Fertilize perhaps 3-4 times per year, but not at the full nitrogen levels of most fertilizers. The first number on a bag of fertilizer is nitrogen. Try to get bags of fert at or below a 20. Often, starter fertilizer is good for that.
When I first moved in my lawn was in terrible shape. I’d plant seed, and by fall things would begin to look good. Until spring, when it was a mucky mess. That was until I figured out that the cheap grass seed I was buying was annual seed, and not perennial. It took several years just to get the perennial to take over, but once it takes it does well. Don’t even touch annual grass seed.
Fertilizing in the fall before the grass goes dormant is by far the best time to do it.
Before just putting down lime, or even fertilizer, collect some soil samples, and send them in to your local agricultural college. They will generally give you a full analysis for 5 to 20 bucks, and let you know what the ground actually needs. Lawns don’t need a lot of phosphorous or potassium, for example, but for deep greens, they do like iron, and nitrogen for growth.
The PH is important, true, but again, you don’t know which way to correct, until you have an analysis done.
Another important thing is to get the surface ‘unpacked’. Aerate it, you can use a hand aerator (a pushy, heavy, thingy with a drum of spikes), or one that can be towed behind a lawn tractor (much much easier). They are probably able to be rented if you don’t want to invest in one.
I’m not a fan of “Weed and Feed” mixtures, I don’t feel truly get your money’s worth of either. I generally use a straight fertilizer, (22-2-2, with soluble iron), and then some highly concentrated targeted weed killers that I spray on. Stay away from anything with Atrazine in it if you are planning to seed in the next two (or 4) years. Atrazine does an excellent job at stopping germination of seeds for a long time.
If they are particularly big, rent the equipment, dig them out, and backfill with sand, then top with topsoil.
I’ve had to do it a couple of times in my backyard. The builder was an ass, and buried them individually, all over the back yard, some sunk the ground a foot deep, in a 10’ diameter circle. My wife sunk into the first one we "found’ to her mid thigh, with one foot still flat on the ground (reminded me of Marvin the Android in the swamp :D).
The backyard is now relatively level (as much as I could do, with no experience, and probably the wrong heavy equipment), and green. I pretty much topped over the backyard with an extra 4 or 5 inches of topsoil, in addition to any filling work that I had to do.
If it’s really that bad, and you don’t mind the project, nuke the existing grass with a Roundup type product, cover with a few inches of good topsoil, seed & fertilize with starter (with crab grass preventer, it’s expensive but good. Tupersan or something that sounds like that). Water regularly, mow high, and keep up with the maintenance. In a couple of years, you’ll have a fine lawn.
And besides, any excuse to rent heavy equipment is a good one!
Are the soft spots the mole tunnels? That’s how I usually realize that the moles have gotten bad again - when I walk into the yard and suddenly sink into it.
If you’ve got a lot of moles, then treating for grubs might be the way to go. Or I guess you can probably get some kind of mole poison.
We’re rather laissez faire on the lawn thing, so generally I just stomp down the tunnels as I find them. If they get really bad, we fill the tunnels with water regularly, which makes the little bastards tunnel closer to the surface. Then either the dogs will get them, or the dogs will fuss enough that we can kill the thing with a shovel. Or sometimes they just get tired of the water and move next door for a while.
I keep campaigning for the Rodent Blaster, but so far have been vetoed.
