What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!

baptizer

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
Hello everyone!
I'm new to the forums and in need of some help from this wonderful community! I live in Northern Virginia and my family and I bought our first home last summer. The grass in the front of the house was in pretty bad shape so in the fall we planted new seed, etc (we tilled up the dirt, added multiple bags of lawn soil, etc). The receipt seemed to work EXTREMELY well. towards the end of the fall, the grass out front looked amazing.

Spring came around and it looked even more 'fuller' and looked absolutely stunning. I felt like a proud father, even the neighbors were complementing me on how amazing it looked! We watered it periodically (once or twice a week or so). Then.........June rolled around..............and my wonderful grass became a nightmare......and I feel like all my hard work was for nothing. I'm afraid to be seen in public because I don't want my neighbors to ask me what happened (jk...kinda)!

Even watering the grass couldn't help the situation. Here are a few pictures. Is this brown spot? A fungus? Was all my hard work a big waste of time and I have to start over? I'm pretty clueless and eager to learn as much as I can from all the members of this forum.

I used Scott’s shade and sun seed mix along with some top soil and Scott’s lawn soil. I think this stuff is a blend of different stuff but mainly Kentucky blue grass (?). I, definitely, realize this is a pretty small region of grass; however, once I had success on this strip, I was planning on doing the rest of my lawn in the fall. This strip of grass did look pretty amazing at one point....hard to believe now. ha.. unnamed_7.jpgunnamed_6.jpgunnamed_8.jpgunnamed_9.jpg
 

BlazNT

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
With it being so close to the road there's really no way to tell what is going on. A lot of stuff gets splashed on there from the rain and cars driving by. Oil gasoline and all other stuff. But it also goes to me is a planted too much grass and it's choking itself out. Did you add fertilizer at the beginning of the year? Did you put a pre-emergent down at the beginning of the year? Lots of things need to be done to continue to grow grass without it dying or weeds taking over.
 

Darryl G

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
It looks to me like you may have spread too much seed. Too much seed creates too many plants and some are unable to compete and survive. Generally speaking (depending on grass variety) you want no more than 20 seeds per square inch.

I'd try seeding again in the fall but don't go tilling it up again. I suggest using a potato fork (I sharpen the tines on mine) to score the ground and make mini furrows in the bare area and then reseed.
 
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Johnny C

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
Hi baptizer

Another No Va resident here. I wouldn't have the expertise of the pros's here to help you much but the patchy areas look like areas where I have used roundup/weed-b-gon. I'll be aerating and seeding in the fall with the grass mix mostly used around here tall fescue and bluegrass. Some neighbors seem to do well with some zoysia.
Anyway you'll get good guidance here - not from me much but the lawn pros on the site.
 

baptizer

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
Thanks for the responses! I really do appreciate it!

So I did put down some 'scotts new lawn food' when I planted it. Other than that, I really haven't put anything else except watering it regularly. I have a lot to learn. Ugh!

When I planted the grass last fall, I feel like I definitely put more than 20 seeds per inch. Even after that, I did continually over seed as fall progressed! I naively assumed 'hey the more the better!'.

Johnny C:
Do you get your seeds from one of the major stores or from like a 'Sothern States Coop'?
 

greenmowers.org

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
Another word of caution: fertilizing struggling plants is typically not a good idea. Really, the only variable that determines the success of young grass is water.
 

7394

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  • / What is going on with my grass? Bringing me to tears!
Neighbor had beautiful Bermuda lawn, (that he likes). Like a golf course, he bought more seed, (don't know why) but this time from local Co-Op, & now no more Bermnuda, his lawn is now full of curly / bent grass.
 
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