It's disheartening when your lush, green grass slowly turns brown in the middle of the summer, especially if your neighbors still have healthy lawns. The brown spots may just be in isolated areas or your entire lawn may be turning brown and crunchy. You may want to call a lawn service for help to get your grass back in good shape for the rest of the summer. If summer is almost over, the lawn care company might apply fall treatments so your grass comes in healthy the following spring. Here are common reasons for brown patches and what you can do about them.
Lack Of Rain
If you have a lawn irrigation system and your city hasn't curtailed watering lawns, you can avoid brown grass during a drought period through supplemental watering. However, if you don't have an irrigation system or you just don't want to pay high water bills, your lawn may turn brown until the rains return. In this case, the brown grass is usually just dormant so it can survive the drought. It can survive a few weeks, but if the grass goes without water much longer than that, it will eventually die.
If your lawn is suffering from a drought, talk to a lawn care expert about the best way you can conservatively add water to keep the grass alive. You may not need to water several times a week. Even a few hours could be enough to save your lawn, and you might be able to do that with a hose and sprinkler wand for an affordable cost.
Grub Worms
Grub worms will kill your grass and leave brown spots behind. Try pulling on the grass. If the roots are still anchored, the problem is most likely dormant grass. If the grass lifts up, the problem could be grub worms. You may even see the worms when you lift the grass. Beetles usually lay their eggs in the summer, so you will probably notice grub activity in the late summer or fall and that's a good time to apply lawn treatments or hire a lawn care service to do it for you. It's also possible to apply grub treatments in the spring but the grubs may be more difficult to eradicate then.
Weeds
Weeds not only look ugly, but they also compete with the grass for nutrients and water from the soil. Some weeds are aggressive and will overpower grass, causing the grass to turn brown and die. Controlling weeds is essential for a healthy lawn and as a benefit, healthy grass can then crowd out weeds. You can keep weeds away by applying herbicide every spring and by spot spraying weeds that pop up during the summer. If you use a lawn care service, they may apply treatments to your yard according to the right season of the year for controlling bugs and weeds while making your grass healthier.
For more information, speak to a professional who provides lawn care services.