Simply Green Tips: Brown Lawn? We can help!

Help! My lawn turned brown after I mowed and I don’t know what to do! Is this a common concern for you?

Here at Simply Green we hear you and are ready to help! With all the rain it’s understandable why some of us are having a hard time keeping up with mowing our lawn every 7 days (the recommended amount of time to mow your lawn). Last year at this time the concern was turf not growing due to lack of rainfall and high irrigation water bills.

One of the beauties of Atlanta is if you don’t like the weather today wait until tomorrow because it can change from one extreme to the next in 24 hours. Due to the frequent rainfall, we are seeing many lawns with what we refer to as “mower burn” which is caused by either the ground being uneven, which causes the mower to dig into the turf when the mower hits low or high ground spots or infrequent mowing.

The solution for mower burn, due to uneven ground, is to mow at least every 7 days and top dress the low spots. You can top dress these spots by mixing sand and compost at a quarter inch until turf has grown on top of the top dressing then the low spots are even. We see this type of mower burn primarily with warm season turf like Bermuda and Zoysia.

The solution for mower burn due to infrequent mowing is to mow every 7 days. We are seeing mower burn spreading with lawns that are being mowed every 14 days. Mowing every 14 days during the growing season will ensure thatch build up, mower burn, discoloration of your lawn, increased weed pressure and generally poor turf grass heath. The reason is if you are mowing or have a landscaper mowing every 14 days your lawn is going through a lot of stress. An example is if you have a bermuda lawn and are mowing with a rotary mower at 2” every 14 days you are removing anywhere from 3” to 4” of the turf blade when you should only be removing one third with each mowing. Your lawn will turn a yellow/brown color for 5-10 days depending on how much leaf blade was removed and will not start new green growth for 5-10 days. For best results, a healthy lawn and to aid with weed control, you should mow your lawn every 7 days in the growing season. If you are reel mowing (like a putting green) you should mow every 3-4 days depending on how low you are mowing.

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