Did i kill my lawn?

Hey everyone! I just bought my first house. Never had a lawn in my life. I went out bought a mower and thought the lower I cut the grass the less I have to mow. To my surprise what a huge mistake. You live and learn. Here is my problem. My grass looks horrible it is turning brown. Can someone please help me? What can I do?

I dunno what kind of grass you have, but my guess is that will come back when things warm up.
Find out what you have and re-seed. How big is the problem...in square feet?
Don't you people use rye grass up there?

Large patches of brown. Some areas are 2 to 3 feet wide. I'm sitting on a 1/4 acre. I don't know what kind of grass it is. Grew up in the city all my life. Just moved to the country. Learning new things day to day.

Vicso1 said:

Large patches of brown. Some areas are 2 to 3 feet wide. I'm sitting on a 1/4 acre. I don't know what kind of grass it is. Grew up in the city all my life. Just moved to the country. Learning new things day to day.

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Did you use any type of fertilizer?
You need to find out what kind of grass you have. You are still seeing lows in the 40's right?

I haven't put anything into the grass. The temperature is going from 50s to 70s. I just moved in three weeks ago. Don't know if the former owner did anything to it.

Vicso1 said:

I haven't put anything into the grass. The temperature is going from 50s to 70s. I just moved in three weeks ago. Don't know if the former owner did anything to it.

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It's not going to make it any worse by leaving it alone for now. I expect you will start to see some green shoots here in the comming weeks. If not.... well, then you need to do something. I understand you have been getting plenty of rain so you shouldn't have to worry about irrigation. We have a member in Jamestown who says he's been getting more than his share of percipitation. You will meet him if you hang out here very long. Just post a thread in the wrong place and he will quickly address it.

You can get help from the county extension service. They will help you indentify your grass and maybe your problem. Find out how to get in touch with them because your problem is probably area specific and I'm definetly in a different area.
God luck

We have been getting our fair share of rain. It will continue to rain out here til Friday. It should help my lawn. I will ask my neighbor what type of grass I have. I will leave it alone for now. Thank you for everything. I should get the hang of it soon. It's an experience.

Season just starting, think you'll be OK. If it were in the heat of the season damage would have been much worse. Like I read in an earlier post, "Leave it Alone", it should come back fine. That is a common misconception many have, "The lower I cut it, the less I'll need to."

Welcome to the club!

The guy who lives next door to me uses a Cub GT-1554 tractor with the deck height adjustment handle dropped completely off the stops, so the deck's entire weight is on the gauge wheels. He basically shaves his lawn so it's a two acre mess, but it always seems to survive the abuse until late summer at least. On the other hand his deck has been in the shop twice for broken gauge wheel mounts. Some people get strange ideas in their heads and they can't be dislodged.

Hi: I just joined the forum and live in Staten Island, NY. I have been landscaping for over 30 years so I do have some experience with your problem. Your not the first one to make this mistake. Fortunately the weather now is cool and wet but will be getting hotter soon. First thing is to raise your mower up to the highest setting and leave it there until the Fall when you can lower it slightly to pick up leaves. You obviously scalped the lawn by cutting it too low. You should try to remove only 1/4 of the current growth height at each cutting. Since your new to the game I recommend purchasing a liquid lawn fertilizer immediately which is applied with your hose. You can't burn the lawn and do more damage this way. If there are bare spots reseed now. This is done by de-thatching the lawn to remove the dead grass. You can hire a pro for this or do a really hard raking with a leaf rake or manual thatching tool. Prepare for some really hard raking. When the thatch is removed loosen the bare areas and reseed. You can get really excellent seen at Lowes. Use the Pennington mix which comes 15 or 20 lb bags. Apply a topdressing of top soil or peat moss over the newly seeded areas. GOOD LUCK