You can look after your lawn however you want, it can lead to problems. Weeds spread, moss appears, and suddenly even mushrooms grow in the lawn. Often you will find various large brown and other colored spots in the middle of the green. There are a lot of things that can be done about it. The type of lawn is also decisive. Weeds have it most difficult on turf. It is so dense that it is difficult for them to gain a foothold. However, laying out a garden with turf is quite expensive. If you already have a lawn, that’s not perfect for you either. However, turf is great for new planting.
Table of Contents
Ambrosia
The allergy-causing Ambroisa is also spreading in more and more gardens. The photo on the right shows the plant. Bear in mind that even skin contact can cause an allergic reaction.
Brown spots from dog urine
When a dog does its business in the garden, the grasses often turn brown and die in these areas. There is hardly anything you can do about this lawn problem, unless you don’t let “Waldi” pee on the lawn. It is helpful to rinse the areas sufficiently with water. If necessary, the affected areas must then be re-sown.
Hexenringe
Witch rings consist of mushrooms, small, white mushrooms that are arranged in a ring. They form a water-impermeable network. Grass roots often die off. Often found in nutrient-poor, sandy soils.
- A sufficient supply of nitrogen is important for prevention.
- Improve sandy soils – enrich with humus
- Ventilate the soil at the affected area
- water sufficiently
- if necessary, cut out affected areas
- Mushroom plexus must be severed
- Countermeasures in spring or autumn
Gaps in the lawn
If the lawn is only growing patchy, dries out quickly, and looks sick, there can be a variety of causes. Depending on the cause, countermeasures must be taken. Usually there is a lack of water and / or nutrients. This is particularly the case with sandy soils. If the lawn is mowed very irregularly, clump-forming grasses can prevail. Flat growing varieties go under. This creates gaps, the lawn looks uneven.
- Improve the soil – enrich it with humus
- Ventilate the soil
- Good, balanced fertilization
- Regular mowing, 4 to 5 cm high
- Re-sowing – if necessary
- Make sure there is enough water
Moss in the lawn
If moss appears in the lawn and spreads more and more, it can have various causes. Moss often grows in the low-light period. Then you often have more moss than grass.
- A lawn cure is cheap
- Improve soil structure
- Enrich the soil
- Mow regularly, height 4 to 5 cm
- Too high or low pruning weakens grasses
- The pH should be between 5.5 and 6.5. Liming if necessary, but exactly according to the instructions!
- Possibly use special products against moss and weeds in the lawn
- Remove dried moss after treatment and re-sow if necessary.
Mushrooms in the lawn
Usually they are small hat mushrooms that appear in groups on the lawn. They do no harm, but they do spread. As a rule, it is sufficient to cut off the mushrooms while mowing the lawn. The fruiting bodies must be eliminated to prevent the fungi from spreading any further. You cannot prevent the infestation. Healthy lawn is characterized by little or no fungal infestation.
Weeds / clover in the lawn
Clover often grows where the pH of the soil is too high or where the lawn is lacking in nutrients. Weeds can manage without nutrients, only lawn grows better. If you fertilize in a balanced, adequate and professional manner, you usually have no lawn problems with clover , although you often cannot prevent it from spreading. Weed seeds are also brought in.
- Fertilize properly
- Maintain the pH value and, if necessary, lime
- Exact and regular cut
- Scarify in spring or autumn
- Aerate the lawn regularly (clover often occurs on soil that is too dense)
- use weed-free lawn if necessary
Vergilbter Rasen
The lawn grasses are yellow. The lawn grows only sparsely and with gaps. Possible causes for this are too deeply cut lawns or a lack of nutrients, caused by
insufficient fertilization, poor soil structure, low humus content of the soil or incorrect pH value.
- Fertilize exactly
- Improve soil structure
- Increase humus content
- Adjust the pH value
Home remedies
Commercially available lawn treatment preparations often contain chemical agents. You cannot always be sure that you will not harm people, animals or the environment with them. If you want to get by without chemicals, you can fall back on a lot of home remedies. Again, there is no panacea, but it is definitely worth a try.
- Clover in the lawn – cover affected areas with plastic tarpaulin for 4 weeks
- Lawn usually survives, clover does not
- Cutting out the weeds, moss, etc. is still the most environmentally friendly method
- permanent and regular rework
- Spring cure for stressed lawns – a package of normal lawn fertilizer + 3 hands full of blue grain + 2 hands full of iron
- works against moss and strengthens the lawn
- Always busy mowing the lawn helps against many lawn problems
- Cut out weeds – always before they bloom, so that they cannot multiply
Lawn fertilizer
Exact fertilization makes the lawn resilient and prevents most lawn problems. However, everything cannot be avoided. There is no such thing as a panacea. Many commercially available fertilizers are offered exactly as such. This is an exaggeration, even though there are really good products out there.
The Neudorff lawn cure, for example, is recommended. A distinction is made between lawn fertilizer and lawn soil activator. It is fertilized and at the same time the soil structure is improved, which many soils lack. Many have had good experiences with Wolf-Garten LQ250 weed killers with lawn fertilizer. However, these products come at a price that puts them off. You pay around 35 euros for 250 square meters, which is hefty.
- For yellow stalks or pale grasses – iron fertilizer
- Caution, iron fertilizer stains!
- For moss – fertilizer + lawn moss-free (scarify)
- Patchy lawn – fertilizer + lawn activator + lime (+ possibly sandy soil improver)
Regardless of whether you buy expensive branded fertilizer or take the one from Aldi, it is important that you use fertilizer and that you use it according to the packaging instructions. Much doesn’t help much! Too much of a good thing does more harm than it does.
When to fertilize the lawn?
- Correct fertilization is crucial
- Three times a year
- 1. at the beginning of the growing season (spring)
- 2. Late summer
- 3. at the end of the growing season (autumn)
- Long-term fertilizers, a mixture of organic and mineral fertilizers, are ideal. One works immediately, the other over a longer period of time.
- Fertilize after cutting!
- Water after fertilization!
Conclusion
Every floor is different. The weather can be different every year and in every place. No lawn is and grows alike, even if it is treated the same. So many factors have an impact on growth and associated lawn problems. Among other things, good fertilization throughout the year is important for the lawn to grow well. Scarifying, aeration and soil enrichment are also part of it. There is no ultimate means of creating a great lawn. Often you have to try all sorts of things until you find the right one for you. That can take years or it can work right away.
If you can find a perfect lawn in the neighborhood, you can ask the owner how he handles the maintenance. Most of the time the earth is the same and so are the environmental conditions. If the neighbor reveals his “secrets”, there is a real chance that it will work for you too.
