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Simply Gardening
by Doug Green
Dog Damage Control

As the snow melts and the grass thinks about greening up, my web site will start to fill up with questions about those brown dead patches on the lawn. So, this is a lawn patch primer -- everything you ever wanted to know.

The symptom is pretty clear: the grass is turning green or has turned green and there are brown dead patches where the grass is not growing. If we’re talking early spring and the grass around the smallish patch is growing strongly -- in fact if you look closely you’ll see a ring of grass around the patch that is stronger, taller and greener than the rest of the lawn -- you have dog damage. There is nothing you can do; the nitrogen in the feces or urine has burned the grass roots -- they’re dead and all you can do is rake the area and apply Doug’s Magic Recipe for grass renovation.

Two items of note here: the first is that applying water immediately after (within an hour or so) of the animal using your lawn as a bathroom will prevent the grass roots from being damaged. After an hour (like after a long winter) there is little point in flooding the area with water to drive the excess nitrogen away. If you can see the damage, its too late to flush with water. The damage has been done and the nitrogen has been flushed away with the spring thaw. Do remember the hour rule though for later this summer when you do happen to see a stray animal -- just get out the hose immediately to stop problems (if you can hit the animal with the water-- so much the better).

The second item is the formula for my magic recipe for grass renovation. Apply this recipe every spring over your entire lawn for a thicker lawn. For every 1000 square feet of damage, use:
2 pounds of grass seed;
2 to 3 bushels (2 to 3 large bags) of compost;
a 4 cubic foot bale of peat moss;
a small amount of lawn fertilizer -- I recommend 1/ 2 pound of Nitrogen

...and the recipe is done.

I add this recipe every spring to my lawn to thicken it up and make it a better lawn (or at least I did when I had a lawn -- I got rid of the grass last summer for a large perennial garden.) The reason you do this every spring is to thicken up the lawn -- to get more grass plants growing. The thicker the turf, the fewer the weeds. I note that perennial rye grass is the best grass for top dressing like this but that any grass is better than nothing.

If you only want to fix a small dog damage spot, rake the area to remove all dead grass debris, sprinkle a handful of grass seed (apply thickly) over the damaged area, cover this quite thinly with some compost and then water the area thoroughly to get the seed in contact with the soil. You’ll find the grass will germinate quickly and within a few weeks, you won’t notice the damaged area. Try not to walk on or mow the damaged areas until the grass has had a good 6 weeks to get itself established. If you mow the grass before it has a chance to become established -- when it is still young and spindly, it will not grow well and weeds will become established in that spot. I know it will look funny with all the young grass spots over your lawn for six weeks, but a little restraint at the beginning will pay dividends later this summer when you can’t see the damaged area and you don’t have any weeds either.

I usually get a question that says something like, "How can I tell exactly how much grass seed to put onto these patches?" The grass seeds should almost be touching after you put them on the dead zone. Apply them thickly -- the thicker the better until they start to overlap and build up a layer. You don’t want them lying on top of each other two or three layers deep -- its one complete layer deep with no spaces between the seed.

Now, you have a well patched lawn and its growing green and with great vigour. Your golf game is improving and things are looking good. Later this summer, you might see some irregularly shaped brown patches developing with no heavy growth around the edges. Brown patches later in the summer are not likely dog damage (unless you can see the tell-tale ring of strong growth around the patch) -- they’re likely white grub damage.

And grubs my friends are another story for another day later this spring.

Get your gardening questions answered at the Simple Gifts Farm web site... or click here to write to Doug Green!

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