5 Common Lawn Problems (And What They Mean)

Lawn maintenance is a massive task for any gardeners out there. It’s a well-known fact that a nice lawn can seriously boost the visual appeal of your garden, while also possibly adding value to your property as well. Typically, a ‘good’ lawn is nicely cut, dark green, and just looks healthy. If you look at the grass in your garden and can safely tick all those three things off the list, then that’s great!

However, most of us will see a few problems with our lawn that prevent one of the three things from occurring. It may not look it, but the grass in your garden can be incredibly complex, which inevitably leads to lots of different issues. Today, we take a look at some of the most common garden lawn problems and what they mean.
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5 Common Garden Lawn Problems And What They Mean

Moss On Your Lawn

Lawn moss is such a common issue and mainly happens during the fall or spring. As such, this is probably an issue many of you are facing right now. It’s not easy to spot from far away, which is why I always think you should inspect your lawn by walking around and actually looking at it close up, rather than just glancing from your bedroom window. The main issue with lawn moss is that it makes your lawn look a lot worse when it starts to grow quite big and take over certain areas. You get an inconsistent color, which is problematic.

What causes lawn moss? There are two main factors that create the perfect circumstances for moss to grow. The first is that the drainage in your lawn isn’t good enough. This means too much moisture doesn’t get down below the surface, and the top layer of your lawn can be quite boggy and wet. Combine this with a lack of sunlight - which stops the excess moisture drying up - and you pretty much have the ideal conditions for moss to grow.

Thankfully, you can definitely cure this problem, and it’s not too difficult for you to attempt. Firstly, as it mentions on www.lovethegarden.com, you need to kill the moss before you do anything else. Find a good moss control product, and it will destroy the spores for you, which you can then cut off your lawn. Then, you need to work on improving the drainage in your lawn so water can flow from the surface down into the roots. Also, try cutting down branches from trees that might put some of your grass in the shade and starve it of sunlight. Essentially, once you’ve killed the existing moss, you need to just ensure that your lawn doesn’t get wet enough to create more.

Bald Patches Of Grass

Seeing bald spots on your lawn is almost as worrying as seeing them on your own head. No one wants to see these patches in their garden as it looks like your lawn is completely ruined. You end up with the awkward situation where some of your lawn is nice and green, while other bits are patchy and nearly completely bald. As a result, figuring out what caused this - and how to cure it - is essential.

There’s good and bad news here. The good news is that the cause of bald patches in your lawn is very easy to figure out. The bad news is that you’re the one that caused them! Yes, these patches occur when a lawn is mowed way too short. We’ve all done this before, you cut the grass with the mower on the lowest blade setting because it seemingly makes life easier. If you cut it really short, then it’ll take longer to grow back and means you don’t have to mow the lawn again for weeks. While you may think this saves time, it actually doesn’t because you ruin your lawn. If you cut it too short, then these bald patches appear and will rarely grow back normally. Not only that, but you create conditions in your lawn that are perfect for things like weeds to grow and really disrupt everything.

Consequently, you need to fix things ASAP. How can you do this? The first step is repairing your patchy lawn, which you can get some help from over on www.hgtv.com as there’s a good resource there. But, if you’re looking for the short-hand version, then you basically need to plant new grass seeds in the patchy areas. Once your patches have been eradicated, and you can see a nice grassy lawn again, then your attention turns to your mowing technique. Always cut your grass, so there are a good few centimeters left after you’ve mowed it. Yes, this means you need to cut it more often, but it also means you avoid bald patches.

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Rings / Circles On Your Lawn

One of the more bizarre issues occurs when your lawn visibly appears to have rings or circles in it. These look like a thin arc in your lawn with no grass growing in it. Yes, this sounds very strange, but it’s actually one of the most common lawn problems out there. You could see a full-on ring in your lawn, or it may just be a semi-circle, or possibly even less than that.

Regardless, you need to know what causes this freakish issue and how you can stop it. The good news is, this problem only points to one culprit; fungus. These rings occur because there’s a fungus growing in your lawn which is basically stealing all the nutrients from the grass and using it to grow the fungus. Hence, you end up with dried/dead looking rings in the lawn. If you left these rings as they are, then you’d soon see mushrooms sprouting and creating a weird mushroom ring in your garden.

How do you solve this problem? One DIY solution is to get a good fungicide and use that on the affected area. Alternatively, as it shows on www.atkinsinc.com, there are lawn care services that know how to treat fungus and help your lawn return to its natural state. The main thing here is that you treat the fungus as early as can be. So, you need to be out in your garden checking your lawn quite regularly to ensure you spot any of these rings before the fungus fully begins to grow. Catch it too late, and it becomes much harder to fix and may result in you digging up your lawn to physically remove the fungus.  ​​

Pale Green Grass

Insect Nests In Your Lawn

On the face of it, pale green grass doesn’t seem like a lawn issue. However, if you looked at what healthy grass looks like, then you’ll notice it’s very dark green in color. Does this mean your grass is unhealthy or is it just because of the type of grass you’re growing? More often than not, it means your grass is unfortunately not in the best shape possible. Light green grass can be an issue which slowly gets worse and worse leading to yellow grass.

The cause of pale green grass is fairly simple; you’re not feeding your lawn properly. A lot of people forget that grass is a living organism just like anything else you plant in your garden. As a result, it needs food and nutrients to grow properly and remain healthy. Pale green grass shows that your lawn is being starved of essential nutrients, and is losing its natural color. It’s similar to the way in which you might go pale when you’ve not eaten for long periods because you’re malnourished.

So, if the problem is a lack of nutrition, surely the solution is improving that? Well, you’re absolutely right; it’s time to start feeding your lawn a lot better. There’s a good article on www.scotts.com that shows you how to feed your lawn and the best times to feed it based on the seasons. Give that a read if your lawn is very pale and needs to be fed better!

Finally, we have a pretty straightforward problem in insect nests. If you inspect your lawn and see lots of insects roaming around with their nests present, then this is a bit of an issue for you. It makes the lawn look worse while also meaning you have a pest problem. 

Obviously, there’s no real cause of insect nests other than insects deciding to infest your lawn and set up shop there. What’s more, the only way to solve this problem is with some insecticide. However, my advice is to try and get a good look at the insects to know what they are and what insecticide works most effectively on them. This will help you banish these pests from your luscious lawn.

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On that note, we’ve reached the end of this blog post. You’ve just read through five common garden lawn problems and what they mean. I hope that there’s enough information here to help you deal with any of these issues if they present themselves to you.