lawn scalping repair

eadlman – posted 27 June 2009 19:57

i think parts of my lawn got scalped as it was uneven ground and the grass now looks very bare, with only a few blades per sq inch. how shall I fix this? will it grow back in?

the sod is newly layed about 6-8 weeks ago

tommy – posted 27 June 2009 22:37

What type of grass is it?

eadlman – posted 29 June 2009 06:55

KBG and I live in New York State…what do u think is best practice here?

tommy – posted 29 June 2009 10:39

The lawn should repair itself over time. Make sure you raise the mowing height of course, and you can also lightly top dress(1/4 inch) the bald spots with peat moss or similar organic top dressing. If you want to hasten the process, you could throw down some more seed before you top dress the spots.

eadlman – posted 29 June 2009 11:27

ok so would it make sense to lay seed in those ares then put pete moss on top just to be extra safe?

how long should I wait to mow the lawn or will mowing no effect these areas?

take a look at these pics below, pic # 4,5,&7 are good examples of whats happening. I gave a hard rake to these areas (amongst others) and the soil seems to have dried.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16ucd9en.458a257r&x=0&y=-8ys9ua&localeid=en_US

tommy – posted 30 June 2009 08:50

It doesn’t look like you need to seed. You have enough living grass plants to fill in those spots. Applying a little topdressing helps protect the crowns, and promotes new shoot growth.

eadlman – posted 30 June 2009 08:54

what kind of top dressing, pete moss? so your opinion says the grass will spread in those areas?

thanks you sooooo much for you speedy replies and continued help. I really appreciate it

Turfguy_UF – posted 02 July 2009 11:56

Top dress with the same soil type. If you have an area of your yard that you can take some soil from I would do that. You always want to make sure when topdressing to apply the same soil type because applying different types will cause layers to form, and can lead to poor infiltration and compaction.

Also don’t over topdress. It is very easy to add more. Try to be under a 1/4″ the first application and then add more the following week as needed.

Hope it helps.

TurfGuy