# My lawn is dying



## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Can you please help me with my year old lawn

Lesco sunym shade mix 
0.85 acre of lawn
I have spread fertilizer, lime and inseticida in the past 49 days also weed control 
I am at Massachusetts and I have irrigation system plus all the rain


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## WDE46 (Mar 11, 2019)

That mix is a cool season grass mix.


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

You mean it is not dying


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Alex79 said:


> You mean it is not dying


No it is a cool season grass mix. You posted in the warm season grass from but I moved it to the cool season side. Do you know what type of grass you have. Also, why did you spread lime? Did you have a soil test done?


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)




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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

The Guy in the store just told me to do the lime


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

What do you suggest me to keep it green


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## nova_lawn (Jun 21, 2019)

I honestly think the fine fescue in your lawn is to blame. It's not as heat tolerant as tall fescue and will be the first to turn brown. Do a soil test and get your pH results. If it suggests you need lime, then add lime. I wouldn't add any nitrogen now until temps go down in the late summer/fall. Maybe also consider overseeding with more heat/drought tolerant TTTF.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Alex79 said:


> Can you please help me with my year old lawn


Welcome to The Lawn Forum! The collective wisdom of folks here will try to help.

When you say the lawn is a year old, when was it seeded? Is this the first summer for it so far?



Alex79 said:


> Lesco sunym shade mix
> 0.85 acre of lawn
> I have spread fertilizer, lime and inseticida in the past 49 days also weed control
> I am at Massachusetts and I have irrigation system plus all the rain


Looks to me that the different areas may have somewhat different issues.

Has the decline in the lawn been somewhat sudden within the last couple weeks? When did it start to start looking like it was on a downward trend?

I'd like to be able to check rainfall amounts for your town -- what town in Massachusetts are you in? (There's a big difference, for example, between North Adams, Sturbridge, Haverhill, Plymouth, and Chatham.)

Much of what I see in the first 3-4 photos looks like grass suffering from drought stress and heat stress. Even though there has been gobs of rain this year so far, only the rain within the last 2-7 days is available to the grass roots, depending upon the soil type. Rain that was received back in May and June is basically irrelevant now. With the sandy soil in most Massachusetts lawns, rain received more than 3 days ago is unavailable to the grass. In the summer, rainfall of less than about 1/3" in a day doesn't really count for much.

In particular, it looks like the soil along the road at the driveway turnaround is likely very shallow, sandy or gravel-filled, and probably holds almost no moisture. (pic below) If that's the case, just one day of 90F temperatures will start to induce drought stress on grass trying to grow there.



Alex79 said:


>


I think there is likely something else going on in the photo below, but it's hard to tell from this photo alone. It could be that the soil there is not getting/holding water, either due to buried rocks or gravel, or basically being just sand at that spot. 
Or, that spot could have been filled with a drought-susceptible weedy grass type such as _poa trivialis_ in it. Or, there could be a fungus issue there. Or, that could be grub-damaged roots.

Things to do there are to take some close-up photos of grass blades at the edge of the dead section and post them here to have folks try to see if there may be fungus damage. Also, do the "screwdriver test" -- take a 6-inch long screwdriver and try to push it into the ground in that area. Can you easily push it into the soil 6 inches? If not, how far does it go? Does it feel like it is hitting rocks, gravel, or something else? Try in about a half-dozen different spots in the dead area. Compare what it feels like to about a half-dozen different spots in a good area. Often, there are rocks, construction debris, road debris, sand, bedrock, etc., in dead spots that look like that.



Alex79 said:


>


To me, the below picture looks like another area with bad soil (like the first picture I commented on above). Did this look better in the spring? If it was good in the fall, but not in the spring, there could have been salt damage from the winter. If it looked good in the spring, and has recently gone bad, it is likely due to poor soil near the road.



Alex79 said:


>


Do you have any photos of the lawn from around the end of May or beginning of June?


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## troksd (Jul 27, 2018)

It could be something below the soil - like rocks, tree stump... It could be compaction. Have U tried shoving a screw driver into the the soil?

The last image looks like heat stress. Mix 2 - 4oz of baby shampoo (Don't use anti-bacterial) in 1 gallon of water. Spray it over one of the dead spots and water in about 1 inch of water (hand watering is just fine). Once the lawn dries, use a rake (or blower) and gently lift any matted grass. U could also use N-Ext's air-8 or Humic acid and Yucca mix for better result.


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Some place the screwdriver only goes like 2 inches down. I think the soil have some rocks 
What can I do to make it green lawn again ?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Shovel around that area, lift up the sod, remove rocks, back fill with soil, place sod and water, water, water...


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2019)

Get a sod cutter, excavator, 20 cubic yards of dirt, install some in ground irrigation and get some fresh dirt down. Laser grade it for proper leveling. Overseeding it, water water water, humic Milo Carbonx etc. Read the lawn a bedtime story. After all that it might look decent. Next weekend bulldoze and rebuild the house.

Or just drink a beer and forget about it.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

g-man said:


> Shovel around that area, lift up the sod, remove rocks, back fill with soil, place sod and water, water, water...


+1 on the approach. If there are shallow rocks, really the only solution is to remove the rock.

However, I wouldn't do any sod removal and replacement in this heat. The root damage / transplant shock may doom that grass, even with daily hand watering. I'd do exactly what g-man suggests above, but in Massachusetts would be inclined to wait until about August 20th with a cooler week (ideally cool and rainy) in the forecast.


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

If i do a power rack and reseed it good seed for sun do you think will help


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)




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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)




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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)




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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Can This mold be the problem?


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)




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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Alex79 said:


> Can This mold be the problem?


No, the mold is not killing your grass. The brown areas near the pavement is b/c the pavement heats up faster than soil and cooks the roots that have no water. That is normal. There could be many reasons why the rest of your grass is turning brown in other areas. In your first picture in the original post, was there a tree taken down in that area?

Are you saying your lawn is one year old b/c it was killed off last year and seeded with that Lesco mix? I sort of doubt it and think some of the problem might be the fine fescues (which by the way is a class of fescue and not an actual species like chewings, red, hard, etc). Who knows what species are dominant in the lawn....

With the limited information, my suggestion is you overseed this lawn in late august/ early september with tall fescue or a tall fescue/ kentucky bluegrass mix. You have plenty of sun and don't need a shade mix. Look at some of the posts on the forum about overseed steps/ process. Good luck


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Thank you I will reseed it on setember


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## BXMurphy (Aug 5, 2017)

Alex79 said:


>


Blech. That fine, skinny-bladed grass. Always dying in the summer. You just have to water the blazes out of it and even then...

I hate that stuff.


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## BXMurphy (Aug 5, 2017)

Alex79 said:


> The Guy in the store just told me to do the lime


Pssshht. Lime.

I did a soil test of my yard. I was surprised when it came out 7.0 pH. On the high end for grass. Not the end of the world but more lime to raise the pH isn't helping matters.

The funny thing is, municipal water is usually buffered high - to the alkaline side. Why? Because low pH (acid) leaches lead out of pipes and nobody wants to drink lead, right?

So... if you are watering with city water, you might be raising the pH and not even know it. Adding lime raises pH, too.

Lime takes a long time to do its thing so that won't kill your lawn overnight. But, for a guy to just casually say "add lime..." he doesn't know what he's talking about because he doesn't know YOUR situation.

We all did it around here. Our fathers... our grandfathers, our great-grandfathers. Why? Because they were using well water which is naturally acidic around here.

Get a soil test from UMass ($15 bucks). It's the best money you will spend going forward.

Murph


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Hi everyone do I have to be worried about this fungus?


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## Alex79 (Jul 13, 2019)

Hi thanks for the help



BXMurphy said:


> Alex79 said:
> 
> 
> > The Guy in the store just told me to do the lime
> ...


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