Why does my yard have brown spots? Why does my grass look dead? Why do my neighbors’ yards look better than mine?

These are questions that we receive all too often. Many times the answer is simple, yet not what a homeowner would like to hear. In Northeast Ohio we have soil that has a lot of clay. This will cause the yard to retain less water and will dry out very quickly, especially along driveway and curb edges and around trees. The soil will become hard as well. The solution to this is water. 1″ of water per week is what a typical yard needs between rainfall and irrigation.

Brown Spots in the yard can be caused by a variety of influences. Most commonly it is lack of water or a different type of grass than the rest of the yard.

Brown Spots can also be a disease or fungus. Most of the time an  application of fertilizer will give the yard what it needs to get back to being green. Sometimes a fungicide treatment will be required to remedy the problem areas of your turf.

Why does my neighbor’s yard look better than mine? They don’t even do anything!

Most of the time, neither of these statements are correct, but it is very true that the grass is usually greener on the other side. When standing on top of grass it is easier to see the flaws whereas looking from afar a yard seems much healthier. But, the most common reason for when this statement happens to be true lies in the soil and water. Having good soil or a yard that is watered or retains more water will endure drought and heat much better than a typical clay soil yard common around the Akron-Canton area.

There can be other answers to these questions, but these cover about 90% of what we see in yards.

If you need an answer to one of these questions, contact your lawn fertilization professional instead of a mowing service to evaluate your property. And keep on watering!