10 Dec How to Repair Bare Patches on Your Lawn Turf
To maintain your instant turf, you’re going to have to invest time and effort into caring for it. If you want to keep your lawn in pristine condition, you have to watch out for lawn diseases and other issues that might damage it. One issue in particular that you may discover is the existence of bare patches on your lawn that will require immediate attention.
Bare patches can appear on even the most carefully maintained lawns. Just ensure that if you do spot bare patches, you deal with them quickly to make sure that they don’t become worse. If left untouched, they may soon spread to cover your entire lawn.
Determine the cause of bare patches
There are various causes of bare patches on lawns. Determining these causes is important so that you can take steps to prevent the same thing from happening again. If the bare patches were caused by constant wear, you have to solve the foot traffic issue. If the soil is heavy and compacted, you will have to aerate before repairing the lawn damage.
After determining the cause of the bare patches, and resolving the issue, you can deal with the bare patches themselves. There are two common methods for dealing with bare patches:
Reseeding the bare area
Reseeding is a quick, easy method for repairing the bare patches on your lawn. The bare area will blend fully into the rest of the lawn after several weeks of upkeep.
Here’s how to prepare your lawn for reseeding:
Rake the lawn
Remove dead grass, twigs, leaves and other debris from the lawn. Pay attention as you rake. If the bare area is easily pulled up, you may also have an underlying grub problem.
Loosen the soil
Use a garden cultivator, a hard-toothed rake or an aerator to loosen the soil and break up the heavily compacted area.
Compost
Add several centimeters of compost layer and mix it up with the existing soil. Spread out the mix for better coverage.
Apply the seeding mixture
Choose the repair mixture according to the grass type, climate and amount of sun exposure. Smooth the mixture out over the area, enough to evenly and thoroughly cover the exposed soil surface. Water the seeding mixture well.
It takes 2 to 7 weeks, depending on your region, weather and grass type, for the bare patches to fully grow back to mowing height.
Patching with sod
Another method is patching with sod, where you fill the bare area with a patch of grass sod. This is ideal for when you’re dealing with several bare spots on the lawn.
Cut a patch
Make sure the patch is at least 6cm or so bigger than the spot you’re going to fill.
Cut the old sod
Remove the dead grass and a layer of soil underneath it. You want your new sod patch to fit into the area and sit on the same level as the old one.
Loosen the soil
With a cultivator or a garden rake, loosen the soil so that the new sod patch can take root quickly and easily grow into the soil.
Place and water the sod patch
Carefully place the sod patch on the excavated area and flatten it out on the ground. Water immediately and regularly for 2 or 3 times daily until the sod patch is properly bonded to the soil.
[H4] Looking for the best lawn solutions for your turf?
Australian Seed and Turf offers lawn solutions for your commercial or domestic turf. From providing freshly cut lawn turf to helping you with its proper installation, we’ve got you covered.
A beautiful lawn is only one call away! Contact us at (03) 9772 7632 or send us an email so we can discuss how we can be of help.
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