You wake up one morning to find yellow spots on your lawn. You’re not happy. Naturally, you want your grass green again, and fast. But why is your grass turning yellow?
In this blog, learn what causes patchy, yellow grass, how to prevent damage, and how you can repair your lawn!
What Causes Yellow Grass
There are lots of issues that can make a healthy Central Texas lawn change color from green to yellow. Here is what we find most often:
- Soil issues
- Changing seasons
- Other causes
Source credit: Grow Green from the City of Austin
Soil Issues
A lack of nutrients in the soil can lead to an unhealthy lawn. This also makes grass susceptible to pests and diseases, which cause the grass blades to turn yellow. In the spring, it’s typically a nitrogen deficiency.
To repair your lawn in spring a lawn expert can often detect the problem without lab-testing the soil’s composition. See some potential solutions below for repairing your lawn this year.
Soil Solutions
- If soil issues caused your yellow lawn, you can amend the soil with compost. This can help fix problems such as poor drainage and proper pH levels.
- Adding fertilizer can also help repair a yellow lawn. A good fertilizer product can replace nutrients missing in the soil, such as nitrogen. (For example, Emerald Lawns provides fertilizer treatments throughout the year. We match different fertilizers based on the season, temperature, and your lawn’s unique needs.)
- Nitrogen or iron supplements can restore yellow grass to green.
Changing Seasons
Seasonal changes can lead a lawn to yellow.
- Lawn scalping, or cutting the grass too short with a lawnmower, can leave only yellow or brown grass behind. A low mow should only happen that first cut of spring.
- In the spring, St. Augustine can suffer disease when temperatures are in constant fluctuation.
- Iron deficiency is another cause. Many times, with heavy rains, turf will grow faster than the turf can take up nutrients and causing some grass yellowing, similar to inflating a balloon.
- In fall and winter, Bermuda grass can turn especially yellow, because Bermuda is a warm-season grass.
Seasonal Solutions
- Avoid cutting more than 1/3 of the grass blade after your first cut of the year. Here is a list of proper mow heights by season/grass type.
- If dormancy makes your grass yellow, you can try over-seeding with another grass type. Or wait to repair your lawn in spring, when the grass will return to its growth-season green.
Other Causes
Yellow grass can also be caused by:
- excessive dog urine
- spilled gasoline or other chemicals
- areas with past stress will exhibit grass yellowing more often if there is not a strong root system to handle seasonal stressors
Other Solutions
- If dog urine or spills cause the grass to change color, try soaking the area with water or a little dish soap. These alone may help clean the staining substance off the grass.
- If your lawn is being mowed too low, kick your lawnmower up a notch. (Or ask your mowers to raise their machine’s height.)
- In extreme cases of yellow grass, you may need to re-seed or re-sod your lawn.
Lawn Best Practices to Help Prevent Yellow Grass
To avoid yellowing grass, you can practice several healthy lawn habits.
- Use dirt or sand to fill in your lawn’s low areas, where water can accumulate and breed disease. This way you can make sure your lawn is level.
- Improve lawn drainage with help from a professional landscaping company.
- Grow the proper turfgrass for your region or climate.
- Check your soil for deficiencies, and add fertilizer or nutrients to enrich your soil. (of course, we have a team on standby for you)
- Always mow at the correct height for your grass.
- Mow with sharp blades and only mow when the grass is dry.
- Has your lawn been aerated with new liquid aeration? Aeration will loosen the soil and lets more oxygen, nutrients, and water reach your grassroots.
