Midwest USA - while all the grass is starting to turn more yellow as the weather is getting colder, this patch yellowed weeks ago and is so markedly different from the rest. Nothing seems different about the type of grass, and the moles are no more active in that area than anywhere else. Should I be concerned something is going on under the surface that I can’t see (e.g., something with the septic tank), or is this within the range of normal?
Note - I know the lawn is not in the best shape. It’s a work in progress.
It looks like a patch of warm-season grass in your cool-season lawn. Most likely zoysiagrass based on the density of it. Warm season grasses spend all winter completely dormant. Just ask anyone that lives south of Kentucky.
@Keaton
We do have some zoysiagrass in the back yard so it makes sense it could be here too. I’m still learning about lawn care so it’s hard for me to recognize the different kinds of grass, and there are a lot of varieties mixed together here. Hopefully it will green up again in the spring.
@Merrick
If you have some in your back yard, it’s very likely to spread to other parts. You can inadvertently relocate it when small bud-containing parts of the existing turf are picked up by the mower or on shoes, etc and moved to another part of the yard. Zoysia is very thatchy, lots of rhizomes and stolons which have lots of buds (nodes) on them. It should survive the winter just fine throughout most of Midwest. Maybe not northern MI or parts of MN, WI.
@Keaton
That’s what it looks like to me, too. Here in VA I’m not familiar with zoysia, but bermuda going dormant in a fescue lawn looks fairly similar.
@Keaton
I think this is the answer. I have a couple patches of Bermuda to deal with and it looks a lot like this. One thing that tells me it’s not salt or heat from the driveway is the very distinct outline of this section. Also, it’s very deep relative to the driveway so don’t see salt or heat damage that far away.
Kim said: @Keaton
I have a patch like this? Will it spread and take over my lawn? How do I kill it?
It will spread. If you have zoysia, it will spread slowly but be more of a dense mat that nothing else grows through. If you have bermudagrass, it will spread much more quickly, but won’t be as dense. If it’s bermuda, there are a couple of products or product combinations that you could use to suppress it and give your cool season turf the upper hand. With zoysia, that would be a little more difficult. Within warm season grass that grows in your cool season lawn (including bermuda and zoysia), the most definite solution is to kill the area with glyphosate, several repeat applications weeks apart to ensure it’s all dead, then overseed with desirable turf in the fall.
As a Texan, I don’t know much about snow blowing and salt, but what the other commenter said seems plausible to me.
Another suspicion is that area has shallower top soil/is more compacted meaning the roots in that part of the grass don’t grow as deep thus that area is first to go dormant as the top part of the soil gets too cold. Kinda similar when it gets very hot and dry - the grass with the most shallow roots will die or go into a heat/drought stress response first.
@Abi
This also makes sense. I did notice during the driest periods this summer that the grass next to the driveway yellowed first, so I’m assuming the soil is shallowest there (the heat from the asphalt probably didn’t help either).
@Shannon
It’s a good theory but last winter was so warm we didn’t need to salt or snow blow at all. I should add that this patch was green earlier in the year - it just yellowed a few weeks back. We have had a couple frosts but no real freezes or cold weather yet this year.
Was there something there - a gravel or cinder parking area, for instance? The edges are so defined that it looks like that is the case and that area still has it a few inches below the surface.
Keegan said:
Was there something there - a gravel or cinder parking area, for instance? The edges are so defined that it looks like that is the case and that area still has it a few inches below the surface.
Nothing at all - it’s been lawn for decades and nothing before that. The soil looks and feels the same as that around it, but I agree the edges are so defined, it’s what had me worried something was happening below the surface.
It was top seeded with different seed. That space is a rectangle with areas of over-spill. Must have been perfectly dug up at one time for a reason - trees and roots removed, maybe.
