As a lawn care company in Milton, MA, one of the most common complaints we hear from homeowners is about the presence of bare patches in their lawn. What causes bare patches to develop? What can be done about them? We’ll answer those questions and more – just keep reading!
Three Causes of Bare Patches in Your Lawn
There are many reasons your lawn can develop bare patches where no grass will grow, but we’re going to start with the three most common causes. These are compacted soil, weed growth, and poor soil nutrition.
Compacted soil is soil that for whatever reason is tightly pressed together. This can happen because there’s a lot of traffic on the lawn – think kids and pets playing, or other similar activity – or due to the composition of the soil itself. When the soil is overly compacted, it’s impossible for young grass plants to get established, and whatever grass is there slowly starves because the compacted soil prevents water and fertilizer from reaching the roots.
The solution to compacted soil is aeration, which is a service your local lawn service can provide. Aeration introduces numerous small holes into the soil so grass can grow.
Weeds can cause bare patches in your lawn. The most common culprit is crabgrass, but other broad leafed weeds are also problematic. Weeds create bare patches by outcompeting the grass for rainwater and other nutrients. The grass basically starves to death, and you’re left with a lawn full of weeds and bare patchese. The solution to a weed issue is called pre-emergent weed control. Talk to your Milton, MA lawn care company for details.
Finally, poor soil nutrition leads directly to bare patches in the lawn. If there’s too much fertilizer in one spot, it can burn away your existing grass, creating bare patches. If there’s not enough fertilizer, the grass perishes due to lack of nutrition. The solution to this is simple: have your lawn service fertilizer the lawn in the spring, mid-summer, and once again before winter.
