# What are these bumpy grass things on my lawn?



## Gowatsongo (Apr 8, 2019)

Hello, I recently moved to Washington state from Texas, so I have no experience whatsoever with cool season lawns. I am trying to learn, but I don't know where to start. Some of my neighbors say to dethatch every year, and some don't even know what dethatching is, so I don't know who to listen to anymore. I don't know what type of grass I have, but my lawn is quite bumpy. My lawn is about 5000sqft.

I just want a green lawn that is also smooth, so my toddler can play in the yard without tripping over lumps of grass/weeds.

So if anyone can help with the below questions, I greatly appreciate it:

1. What type of grass do I have? I'm guessing Kentucky bluegrass?

2. What are these lumps in the grass? Are they grass that needs dethatching or are they weeds?

3. How do I smooth out my lawn? I don't necessarily want a magazine worthy lawn. I just want it to be less bumpy.

Thank you so much!


----------



## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

@Gowatsongo

Welcome to TLF!

That is tall fescue (TF), not to be confused with turf type tall fescue (TTTF). Tall fescue and TTTF are clumping type grasses. Those really big, ugly ones are an old variety of TF called Kentucky 31 (K-31), which stick out like a sore thumb, as you can see in the photo. Since you're not at full greenup, they're even more obvious than during the regular season. The best thing to is to apply Roundup (glyphosate) to kill them, and reseed the area. If you can tolerate them for the summer and wait until the fall (late summer, actually), that's the best time to reseed. It's very difficult to dig them out, but it can be done. You could choose to nuke them now and reseed, but spring seeding is a little harder to get the seedlings to survive the heat of the summer with an immature root system.

Some of the other, taller, wide blade grasses look like older varieties of TTTF from past overseeds. They won't stand out as much when the other grasses completely come out of dormancy and thicken up for the season. It looks like you have quite the No-mix (Northern mix) with bluegrass, ryegrass, TTTF, and fine fescue.

I would follow the Cool Season Guide for one season using tier 1 level of care, and see what results you achieve. Then you can decide if you want to step up to tier 2.
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1595


----------



## ryeguy (Sep 28, 2017)

Chris LI said:


> It's very difficult to dig them out, but it can be done.


Wait until after a good rain then yank on em. The whole clump comes out at once.


----------



## Kaba (Mar 29, 2019)

As @ryeguy and @Chris LI said that is the awful old tall fescue. My lawn was littered in it, it looks the worst while the other grasses are in dormancy (early spring, summer heat). I pulled a few in my yard, then said forget this as they were everywhere and hit the areas with roundup and re-seeded the areas (I did the first week in September, not spring!).


----------



## bullet (Mar 4, 2019)

Wow I never knew there was a good and bad Tall Fescue... How does this happen? Is there a way to prevent this? I'll be reseeding my lawn this fall with TTTF.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

^ it is called "Other seed" in the bags of seed. If you buy sod quality seeds, then the number of other seed is 0.

If a sod producer is willing to pay extra for sod quality seed, it must be because it is worth it.


----------



## Gowatsongo (Apr 8, 2019)

@Chris LI Thanks for such a thorough reply! Yeah, this is an old house and the previous owners did not take much care of it. We've been having lots of good rain, so I will try to dig up the clumps. I'm about to dig a new garden bed... so could I use some of the good sod I dig up from that to cover up the clumps I remove?


----------



## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Gowatsongo said:


> @Chris LI Thanks for such a thorough reply! We've been having lots of good rain, so I will try to dig up the clumps. I'm about to dig a new garden bed... so could I use some of the good sod I dig up from that to cover up the clumps I remove?


You're welcome!

Absolutely, you can use the good sod to replace the nasty clumps! Some of the folks on TLF have purchased the Pro Plugger, and move good sod around to fill dead spots/open areas. Some have mentioned that they use it to pull plugs from their beds. I purchased one and plan on using it soon.


----------

