# What has been going on with my lawn?



## sobomp3 (Apr 2, 2019)

Hello all,
We've been homeowners for the past three years now. The backyard is roughly 80x20feet (1600sqft) of shaded to densely shaded. Best I can tell the grass is a fescue/kbg mix. The yard is covered quite well by a large black walnut tree and many smaller trees. I try to pick up the walnuts as best I can in the late summer and early fall.

The yard was in pretty good shape the first summer we were there. I mowed per usual and applied Scotts lawn food in the fall, lawn food w/ halts that first spring. Being beginners, we didn't realize halts not only prevents crabgrass but actually halts all seeding :lol:. We removed a rickety swingset and filled the area with top soil and seed. Stupidity aside, it actually came up well and lasted the year.

However that fall, after some friends' kids were running about during a barbecue, I noticed areas that were *not part* of the swingset area where the grass was just lifted off the soil like a rug on hardwood. Its as if the roots weren't even attached to the soil. My first thought was grubs, but I dug and couldn't find any. Reading that grubs are dormant in the fall, I raked up a very large area of this grass with minimal effort until it got to areas that were rooted. I put more soil and seed down with hay on top. It was early-september and with a lot of rain it came up quite well, quite fast!

Last spring I put down GrubEx. The newly seeded areas were very patchy after a snowy winter, so I spot seeded... Once again in late summer, I noticed mats of grass just started coming up if you'd drag your feet or pull up on it. I once again raked and patched.

Here we are in early spring. The snow has melted and the lawn is very patchy. I've noticed you can pull up areas that seem to have no roots. I'm planning on putting lawn food down this weekend, but I feel like this cycle I'm repeating is useless. Something is obviously quite wrong.

Could it be the black walnut tree? I've read mixed things on juglone affecting grass. It sure didn't seem to matter the years prior to us being there.

Could it be the heavy precipitation we've had the past few years? It can get pretty wet back there at times.

I'm not seeing any signs of fungus, and again, I've never seen any grubs.

We do have dogs. A female collie and male sheltie. They don't typically "do their business" in the areas that are having this issue, though. Where they go is actually in good shape.

I apologize about my first post being so long winded, but I wanted to cover everything. I just want a nice lawn again. Hoping to get to the bottom of this!

Here is a picture in late summer of the grass pulling up like nothing:


Here are some pictures from last night of what my yard typically looks like after the snow melts, and before it gets warm:





And finally, here is what my yard looks like after some spring lawn food and some seed patching... as you can see, it resembles a lawn, but every year it requires a bunch of work before everything just pulls right off the soil again:


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## sandyb (Apr 18, 2019)

I have the same problem with my lawn. My lawn has a 25 year maple on
It. It's as though the roots are nit connected. I cannot see any grubs.i have used a lawn care company for years and it has always been a problem. I'm hoping you will find the solution with me.
Thank you
Sandy


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