Is it really too late?

indireneedofhelp – posted 29 June 2004 19:29

Hi,

someone who recently saw pics of my deteriorating lawn told me “it’s too late.” blah blah “you’re on your own”…

What do you think? is it really too late?here are some pics.http://gallery.littledeath.net/main.php/view/lawn/trouble/lawn-problem/

tia

volabroad – posted 29 June 2004 22:20

Well. . . I renovated worse . . . and mind you, it isn’t perfect still. Not sure if that is even grass in the yard, or some type of sedge. . .

If you want the quick approach, get a soil test, have someone come out and grade the yard and pull everything up, put down some topsoil if needed and just sod it.

If you want a challenge. . . Not sure what part of the country you live in. But, if you live in the correct area, you could grow fescue during Sept. by seeding. Just rake up the dead stuff (all the gray stuff) and water the seed bed. Maybe even spray round-up a month before and rake up all the dead weeds. . . then seed. If you seed in Sep, and those are sedges, then they will “die” in the winter freeze and you can seed more in spring and try to get rid of the sedges the next go around.

If they ARE sedges, you aren’t going to be able to completely rid yourself even if you grade it out. The tubers will still be in the ground unless you dig up about 8-10 inches.

If that is crabgrass, you can apply herbicides to kill them, and then pre-emergents next year.

Case and point, no lawn is untreatable. It just depends on what you want — perfect or project.

volabroad – posted 29 June 2004 22:22

Looking at it again. . .not sure it is a sedge. . . could be a type of crabgrass or maybe st. aug? Not sure.

Looks like a lot of matted pine needles or leaves or something. You’ll need to rake all that up if you want to seed. . . that is some good, hard work. ..

indireneedofhelp – posted 29 June 2004 22:30

man, i sure left out a lot of details. I’m in south florida. I already had pulled everything up and had bare soil and laid new st. augustine grass in there 4 weeks ago. That was (is) brand new sod that was very healthy just 3 weeks ago and now is dying on me. It is extremely hot here and raining a lot. Just recently it is letting up.

Can’t seed st. augustine. I’m thinking it is fungus so I’m getting ready to treat for that tomorrow (unless someone tells me not to) I just don’t know what else to do and am desparate. If I wait any longer there won’t be any grass back there left to work with.

volabroad – posted 30 June 2004 18:08

Not super familiar with St. Aug. . .

Does it go dormant with heat? I know that centipede can go dormant and look like that in excessive heat, but will come back out with enough water. .. .

Has there been rain everyday? If so, fungus is a good guess as a culprit. When the ground is moist for long periods, and it is hot, it spreads. . .

If it hasn’t been raining, water that lawn for atleast 2 hrs tomorrow morning and then the next day and see if it starts to green up.

Here is a tip about fungus that sounds intuitive, but I didn’t think about it when I had problems. You can see fungus. It isn’t an invisible killer. . .Think of mold on a fruit. . . you should be able to see _something_ like that on the ground somewhere if it is fungus.

Did you water daily when installing the sod? Did you do a soil test? Did you walk all over it? It is possible the grass did not take. Did you spray anything on it? I wouldn’t spray chemicals on a new lawn until I was sure its root system could handle some stress. . . any fertilizer?