Can my lawn be saved?

Question

I live in Las Vegas, NV and bought a house last Fall with some very nice green lawn. As the Summer has progressed, the lawn has gotten more and more patchy, with brown mixed into the green and some spots where the dirt is even showing through.

I did fertilize a few times before it got very hot, and I tried intensively hand watering the dry spots a couple of times to see if it would help, but it seems to be getting worse. Any suggestions?

(eventually we probably will convert to desert landscape, but we aren't ready quite yet and we hope to keep the lawn healthy & nice in the meantime)

Answer 1

its probably grubs. grubs are wormlike and eat the roots of grass leaving rown patchy lawns. buy milky spore at home depot or walmart!

Answer 2

Home Gardening Help Line

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These guys are there to answer your questions.  Do you know what type of lawn you have?  I'm wondering if the seller but in a cool season lawn just for show and as the heat it, it died out.  Often they have a warm season grass.......say bermudagrass......and then for the cooler season they overseed with annual ryegrass.  

When you do convert over......really think your need for a lawn.  "Just because" may be more work, water, and $$ than can be justified.  You have so many beautiful plants for your area.....the xeriscape demo garden should give you many good ideas.  

In the mean time, contact the Master Gardeners, this is their mission.....to help.

Answer 3

Try to do some "common-sense" investigation before you do anything drastic.  First, I would dig down (shovel) into those bare areas and see if you can find grubs (top 2").  Most likely, you will find that the soil is really dry?  If so, turn on your irriagtion system to water 2 cycles (in order to catch up); one in the a.m. (5am) and again in the evening 9pm.  Do this for a week if your dry.

Realistically you'' be hiring a landscaper to dethatch and overseed your bermudagrass (Aug/Sept) so that you have VER GREEN cool-season grass through the winter.  So, don't worry about it too much at this point.  

Start getting estimates (and scheduling this important fall maintenance task)