There are dead patches in my lawn, what do I do?
There can be a wide variety of reasons for dead patches in lawn, but fortunately most are perfectly treatable! Get to the bottom of the problem and turn your moonscape back into a beautiful lawnscape today.
Some common causes of dead patches in lawn include pets, underwatering, heavy traffic, pests, and lack of sunlight. Let’s take a look at each in turn.
Pets
Pets such as dogs and chickens can create dead or damaged patches in your lawn by scratching and digging. It’s usually pretty obvious when this is the cause. The best solution is to keep your pets away from these areas to give them time to self-repair. Apply a slow-release fertiliser now and again in 6 weeks’ time to speed up the repair process. The slow-release fertiliser we recommend for our lawn varieties is Lawn Solutions Fertiliser.
Dog urine is also a common cause for dead patches in your lawn. When your dog urinates regularly in the same area it can cause burns due to the high nitrogen content of the urine. The brown patches should self-repair if you can stop your dog from urinating in this area. If this is not possible, there is a product on the market called “dog rocks” that can help neutralise the urine so it doesn’t burn your lawn. Simply add the flavourless, dissolvable rocks to your dog’s water bowl.
Underwatering
Another common cause of dead patches in your lawn is underwatering, which causes it to dry out. Most of our instant lawn varieties, such as Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo, Tif Tuf, Sir Grange, and Eureka Premium VG, are drought tolerant and require minimal watering. However, in Melbourne’s hotter months your lawn may not get enough natural rainfall to meet its water needs.
Generally, we recommend that you use an irrigation system or sprinklers to water any lawn, as it encourages a more even spread of water across the area. Hand watering with a hose doesn’t provide an even distribution of water, and can also be time consuming.
Whenever daytime temperatures are over 28 degrees, we recommend setting your sprinkler or irrigation system to turn on once a week for about 20–30 minutes in the early morning or after dusk. After you have watered, stick your finger into the lawn to check that it has received enough water. If it feels wet below the surface, your job is done.
Heavy traffic
Even though it is capable of self-repair, when your lawn receives heavy traffic from pets or humans – for example, after a party – dead patches can occur through excessive wear.
When this happens, you should remove all traffic from the affected areas and apply a slow-release fertiliser such as Lawn Solutions Fertiliser every 4 weeks until the area has self-repaired. During Melbourne’s cooler months (May to September), self-repair and lawn growth may be slow.
Pests
Lawn grubs can be a problem at certain times of year, although they don’t tend to like Melbourne’s relatively dry climate and are much less prevalent here than on the more humid NSW and QLD coasts.
The best way to diagnose lawn grubs is to place a wet hessian bag or old towel on the lawn overnight. If, when you lift the bag/towel in the morning, you see an abundance of creepy crawlies, you have your answer!
If you find lawn grubs, give our friendly staff a call on (03) 9730 1128 or email contact@lilydaleinstantlawn.com.au and we can recommend the best product to treat your lawn.
Low sunlight
Lack of sunlight can cause bare patches for some of our lawn varieties. Eureka Kikuyu Premium VG and Tif Tuf should receive full sunlight, whereas Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo and Sir Grange require only about 4–6 hours of sunlight per day.
If your lawn area is not receiving enough sunlight, especially during the cooler months, consider pruning back surrounding trees. You can also support your lawn to self-repair by increasing fertilising frequency to every 8–10 weeks and reducing traffic in the lead-up to and during the cooler months.
With some simple awareness and good maintenance of your lawn, our fantastic self-repairing lawns will be healthy, happy, lush and green in no time.