Looking for some guidance on what I can do about my lawn being so lumpy. There’s a good chance it’s due to my dog, and I’m happy to fence off areas for a while to recover, but does anyone have any advice for what steps I should take?
It’s probably from a lot of dog traffic while the grass is dormant… Along with some other hard-to-pin-down contributing factors like grass type, thatch thickness, soil compaction, etc.
As long as patches aren’t being worn down to the dirt, it should recover when it comes out of dormancy and stop being lumpy. Making sure to get it fertilized as soon as it starts to wake up should help.
If it stays lumpy after it’s been awake for a while, you might need to level, but it honestly looks like the soil itself is pretty level so I doubt it.
@Torrance
It was a bit lumpy last summer, I’ll make sure to fertilize though.
Does aeration or scarifying help with this?
Day said:
@Torrance
It was a bit lumpy last summer, I’ll make sure to fertilize though.
Does aeration or scarifying help with this?
Can you tell if the soil is actually lumpy? Or does it seem like the lumps are just really dense bunches of grass?
@Torrance
It’s definitely the soil; the grass is not doing great in some of those areas… also due to the dog :-/
(He’s a good boy though!)
Day said:
@Torrance
It’s definitely the soil; the grass is not doing great in some of those areas… also due to the dog :-/
(He’s a good boy though!)
I gotcha. So I studied the 2nd picture a bit more (I didn’t realize there was a 2nd pic until now). And I’m pretty confident in saying that the bumpiness of the lawn is pretty much exclusively because of the patchiness of the grass.
- Grass roots hold soil in place. So rain/irrigation and doggy paws won’t move it around… Infact, when those effects act on bare soil, they often end up pushing that dirt into areas where there is grass… Which essentially doubles the height difference between those spots.
- basically the same thing as the first bullet point, but for compaction instead… Grass roots add a level of elasticity to the soil that mildly resists compaction; bare soil will get easily compacted.
- when grass naturally sheds old leaves and old roots die, they decompose to form what is essentially soil… So, a spot with grass will naturally raise over time.
So, my recommended fix is to support the health of the grass and improve the physical properties of the soil in a way that will both make the grass more durable and… Stabilize the soil, you could say. Fortunately, it’s actually pretty simple:
- in the spring, once the grass starts to green up, mow at 2 inches (bag the clippings) core aerate. Focus on thin areas, really go to town, go over 2 or 3 times. Do it while the soil is damp but not muddy.
- immediately after aeration, spread a type of organic matter. 0.25-0.5 inches of compost would be best, but that’s obviously a ton of work… An easier alternative would be Anderson’s biochar (not humichar!) or Lesco Carbon Pro G. For either, do 1.5 times the max rate on the bag.
- optionally, apply a humic acid and/or seaweed/kelp extract product right after that (N-EXT RGS for example). These do a bunch of different things that would take a lot of words to explain, so I won’t unless you ask… But they’ll definitely help the overall situation. You’ll repeat that application in June.
- give the soil a few days to settle. Hopefully, you get rain that time, or you can water once.
- optionally: then overseed the thin areas with perennial ryegrass ONLY… That is the only type of cool-season grass I would recommend planting in the spring. It germinates and establishes quickly and is very durable when it comes to dogs. Any PRG seed from twincityseed.com would be great. Brarenbrug’s RPR seed would be the best choice though, if you can find it. Keep the soil constantly moist for 10 days after seeding (water lightly 2-3 times a day). After that, switch to moderate watering once a day for another ten days and then every other day for 3 weeks. And then…
- water heavily 2-3 times a week through the WHOLE summer. If the grass looks dry, water for longer, not more often.
- mow at 3.5-4 inches.
- get some fertilizer on it 4-5 times a year.
@Torrance
Thanks for the thorough instructions! I really appreciate it!
Day said:
@Torrance
Thanks for the thorough instructions! I really appreciate it!
You bet
I took a break from lawn care a few years ago to run a doggy daycare out of my house; if there’s one thing I learned it’s that fluffy soil (incorporating the organic matter) makes EVERYTHING better in the long run when dogs are around.
And fortunately, your dog strikes me as a bouncy dog, and not a running/tearing dog, which means a little soil fluff, high mowing, and good watering will go a loooong way.
@Torrance
My wife laughed at your guess; the dog is definitely of the bouncy variety!
Day said:
@Torrance
My wife laughed at your guess; the dog is definitely of the bouncy variety!
The doodle types usually are! Got those pogo stick legs and furry paws that they’re so prissy about getting wet/excessively dirty, on top of the personality of being a sassy human trapped in a dog’s body
Can core aerate and drag the lawn to get the cores to fill in the low spots. Or can run a roller on it in the spring when the ground is softening up.