[deeps]

Hi
I reside in South Africa, Durban and we are entering Spring
I planted my lawn in 2015 and all was well.
This year I had a lot of moles and stopped watering and feeding until I got rid of the moles
Currently my lawn looks very bad and wanted your help on how to fix this.
I currently have rainbird 5004 sprinklers and run it twice a week for 30 minutes each zone. So it receives 1,25 inch of water a week
Lawn area is 160 foot square and has a slope towards the deck
I just added some fertilizer 2;3;4 and we don't get Milorganite in South Africa
Your assistance is greatly apricated

 

[Fronta1]

Hi
I reside in South Africa, Durban and we are entering Spring
I planted my lawn in 2015 and all was well.
This year I had a lot of moles and stopped watering and feeding until I got rid of the moles
Currently my lawn looks very bad and wanted your help on how to fix this.
I currently have rainbird 5004 sprinklers and run it twice a week for 30 minutes each zone. So it receives 1,25 inch of water a week
Lawn area is 160 foot square and has a slope towards the deck
I just added some fertilizer 2;3;4 and we don't get Milorganite in South Africa
Your assistance is greatly apricated

Does the grass always look that brown after winter? That looks dead to me. I think you may need to start over. Try to remove as much of that as possible with your mower and a rake and level out the low spots with some top soil.

 

[Fronta1]

Do you know of any other bluegrass lawns in your area that have come out of dormancy? Did it look like that last spring? What are your summers and winters like there?

 

[deeps]

bluegrass is not common berea grass is more common or cynodon is more common
it was not as bad as this a light tint of green. This year South Africa has had a drought restriction with our dams at 30% mark
Summer temps are between 86-95 degrees f and winters area around 64. No snow etc
Our last rainfall was on the 5th of May 2017
I have just done a soil test and i have mostly sand. no clay, silt etc
The Ph levels are quite high as well
Moisture level are wet. Was watered yesterday 32 hours ago
Im going to first add some compost before redoing the lawn

 

[Fronta1]

Ah well there's your problem, deeps, bluegrass is not suitable for your climate. Bluegrass is a cool season grass adapted to temps between 55 and 75 and will come under stress at higher temps. I wouldn't count on the brown portions coming back. Go with something more adapted to your climate. I'm not familiar with the grasses you mentioned but over here warm season grasses include Bermuda, centipede, and St. Augustine, among others.

 

[j4c11]

Having said that, you can definitely still grow KBG in those kinds of temperatures. We do here in NC, indeed it struggles in the summer but it can be done. Heat will not kill either fescue or KBG. What typically kills it is lack of water and/or disease.

 

[deeps]

The casino which is 6 miles from me has the same lawn and their lawn is always good and they have it cut low so it should grow

Im going to add lime to get the ph right then cut it low and add lawn dressing to it

im not ready to throw in the towel just yet

 

[Fronta1]

Just make sure it gets lots of that

 

[ales_gantar]

What is your pH level? If it is high you should consider lowering it, not raising it with lime.

The casino which is 6 miles from me has the same lawn and their lawn is always good and they have it cut low so it should grow

Im going to add lime to get the ph right then cut it low and add lawn dressing to it

im not ready to throw in the towel just yet