5 Warning signs of your grass’s demise

Your lawn won’t usually turn from good to bad overnight. It will suffer a slow deterioration over a longer period of time.

It is important that you take notice of any of the following changes in the appearance of your grass and act as quickly as possible to rectify the cause of the problem. If you don’t, then it could get worse and you end up with even more problems.

Here’s 5 common things to look out for:

Increase in weeds

When weeds appear, it can be a sign that your lawn isn’t as healthy, thick and established as it should be. Weeds are starting to find it easier to infiltrate and taking over parts of your lawn where grass used to be. Make sure you remove the weeds as soon as possible and take steps to improve the health of your lawn. This could include watering, fertilising, aerating and better lawn mowing techniques. It will depend on what area of your lawn care needs addressing, sometimes it may be all of the above. Learn more about common weeds here.

Dry patches or general dryness across the entire lawn

There are generally 2 reasons this occurs, firstly the lawn is simply not receiving enough water. Secondly, it may be that the soil base of your lawn is compacted and not allowing decent water penetration to the roots of your turf. A really good aerate and sometimes an application with a wetting agent will help with this, on top of improving or increasing the watering of your lawn. Learn more about helping your lawn handle the heat here.

Fungal appearance

The most common causes of fungal developments in lawns are poor drainage and humidity. If your grass has developed patches of slimy, discoloured, spotted or fungal like growths, you will need to address the cause as soon as possible to ensure it doesn’t spread further into your lawn and cause the plant to die. Sometimes you will also need to apply a fungicide in order to get the problem under control. Learn more here.

General discolouration

Discolouration across your lawn can be caused by a few different things. But you will usually find that is due to inconsistencies in either watering, fertilising or soil composition. Addressing these 3 fundamental aspects of lawn health usually provides a more consistent colouring across your entire lawn.

Bare patches

There’s a few causes of bare patches including chemical or fertiliser burn, grub or beetle activity, and urine burn. If it’s none of these, then you will usually find that the culprit is compaction. Hard soil bases subjected to the hot sun, make it very difficult for grass to grow and establish. This is a common problem during the warmer months, with aerating and deep watering’s the key to preventing this from occurring. Learn more about repairing bare patches here.

If you are on the look out for these warning signs, then you can stop them in their tracks and the fix is usually an easy one.

For more lawn care tips and advice check out our lawn care page here.