A beautiful lawn with thick and lush green grass is a great feature of any property, so it can be especially frustrating when your lawn seems to be dying. This could mean you are seeing small areas of yellow patches or your entire lawn may seem to be going brown.
The first step in fixing this issue is to identify the problem to determine what corrective steps to take to keep your lawn growing well.
Common Reasons Lawns in Baton Rouge Start Dying
Although there can be a number of reasons why your lawn starts to die, some basic observations are often enough to help you pinpoint the cause which can include:
- Not Enough Water – With Baton Rouge’s frequent rain, this is rare but not impossible. Lawns that are not receiving enough water will often be brown and straw like. If only parts of your life lawn are like this, chances are it is a sprinkler problem. If your entire lawn is dry, a deep watering followed by regular watering is likely necessary.
- Excess Water – When lawns get too much water, the grass will not be able to get enough oxygen and the soil temperature will become too cold for grass to grow. If you suspect your lawn is getting too much water, you can cut back on your watering or schedule water in the morning so water can evaporate. But you should also make sure that you have effective drainage in place.
- Pests – Cinch bugs beetles and other pests can damage the roots of lawns in Baton Rouge and cause grass blades to become brown and wilted in appearance. The solution will depend on the type of pest, although pesticides can often help, as well as changing the way you water your lawn.
- Weeds – Weeds growing in your lawn will keep grass from getting enough nutrients and water, eventually causing the grass to begin to turn brown. Like pests, you will need to know which type of weed you have in your yard to apply the correct herbicide treatments.
- Disease – Different fungi and diseases can infect your grass and cause damage to roots or blades. Although there are several different types of fungi that can occur, common ones include mushrooms that create fairy circles, or patches of brown grass in a circular pattern. Other diseases can cause all turf grass to begin turning yellow or make blades look dusty white.
- Soil Compaction – Over time, particularly in highly trafficked areas, the soil gets pressed down, removing air pockets. This makes it difficult for roots to push through and the soil to absorb water and nutrients. Regular aeration is the best way to keep soil from becoming compacted.
These challenges should not be mistaken for dormancy. The majority of lawns in Baton Rouge are planted with warm season grasses that thrive during the summer and turn yellow in the winter when they go dormant as temperatures cool. As long as the soil and grass are healthy, these grasses should turn green and begin growing again as soon as the weather warms up in the spring.
When you can identify these issues relatively quickly, bringing back your lawn after damage often only requires fixing the issue and then reseeding the patchy area.
With lawn care services from Leeson Landscape, we are constantly on the lookout for these challenges. When any brown spots or other signs in your grass indicate that there might be a problem, we work quickly to diagnose the issue and correct it with our professional lawn care services so that your grass never suffers from unsightly damage. Get started with our lawn care services when you contact our team.