A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Need Lawn Specialist

I moved in here about 3mo. ago, so the following info is all i know about the lawn.
Half of my front lawn is going brown.I give
it plenty of water. This lawn is about 30 yrs
old and originally was sod. Under the sod
part I find about 3 inch's of clay with no
moisture. Below that down to 18 inch's it looks like some kind of clay pebbles. I thought it was gravel at first but its clay
pebbles or adobe they call it here.
Do I need to rejuvenate this whole lawn or
aerate it and try patching with seed and
compost. Does anybody have any ideas on the
best and cheapest way to go. What are these clay pebbles, and what would cause them?
I'm in zone 9.

Gene

Gene,
What kinda grass do you have?
Bought a new home that is built in a sod field.I have St Augustine grass..We had clay here as our top soil.The grass does very good here..Have you fertilize the grass??Let me know what kinda grass you have im no grass expert tho..
But i'll try to help you..

Do clumps of the brown grass pull away easily from the soil (clay)? What is the root structure like? Look for insect problems... white grubs under the turf, leafhoppers in the grass itself...

Sorry it took so long for me to get back,
my computer took a crap.
i'm not sure what kind of grasses i have but
i suspect it's perennial rye and fescue.
i don't have any worm or insect problems
under the sod.
What i did find was about 1 to 11/2 inches of
thatch under the grass where it was dying.
The lawn is so old i guess in these places
it compressed and kept water from getting into the soil. I took an auger and put a
bunch of holes about 4 inches down. It does
seem to be getting some green spots.
i found out about this on a lawn website.
I never heard of it before.

Gene

Hey there,
This is a good little challenge for me as 'm a beginning horticulture student.
It sounds to me like you may need to completely renovate your lawn.
If underneath the grass is clay, then the water you are adding maybe too much as it is not draining and you are drowning it.
God only knows when it was aerated if ever. The grass roots can't breath nor can they grow down to where they supposed to.
Find out what type of grass you have. Some grasses do go brown in certain seasons.
It's my best guess that overall your soil (clay) is dead and providing no nutrition or air to the grass plants. Any earthworm activity? They will aerate the soil.

Hope this helps

Yeah guys, I think I'm in real trouble. I got
some green spots coming in, but not enough to
make a nice looking lawn. I haven't seen one
earthworm since I've been here. Looks like I
need to call in the sod busters and put in a
new lawn. Maybe I can sell the thatch to a
roofing company in Ireland.