1.  I have "trails" in the grass, with clumps of dead grass in some of the trails, especially where the snow was the deepest or most concentrated, What happened?

During the winter, meadow mice (voles, not moles) like to eat the succulent stems of grass plants. Often they come from nearby fields, woods, or nests onto the lawn, tunnel into the grass, and spend a good amount of time eating the grass stems underneath the snow. When the snow recedes, you seethe results of their activity. The good news is, they have not eaten the roots, so most of the grass plants will recover. To help speed recovery, it is very important to rake up the dead grass in these areas so it doesn't choke out the fragile grass plants underneath.

2. I have light gray or light pink colored spots on my lawn, and/or areas of grass that seem especially matted down. What is this?

Often when we get our first snow, the ground is not yet completely frozen. Even when it is frozen, the ground under snow is warmer than ground directly exposed to the winter cold. The longer the snow covers the ground, the greater the chance the Snow Mold will occur. Once the snow recedes, you can see the lightly gray or pink colored spots in the grass. Sometimes the spots are small, and sometimes they can be huge, and usually the grass in the infected areas is matted down. After the snow has been gone for awhile, the colors of the snow mold disappear, and the spots are just light beige in color. In some cases, the snow mold can be worst in shady areas, such as the north side of the house or north side of a line of trees, etc. Stimulating the grass to grow is the best thing you can do to enhance recovery from snow mold. This is done two ways: First, by vigorously raking (or de-thatching) these areas, and second, by fertilizing the lawn to feed the turf for early spring green-up. Unless the dame is extreme, these two steps will help your lawn to recover.

3. I have light straw colored spots in my lawn (yes, I have a dog).

During the winter months, the grass is in a weakened, fragile condition compared with the growing season. When your dog urinates on the grass, his/her urine "burns" the lawn - the acidity of the urine is too strong for the grass to handle. Add to this fact that most dogs go to the bathroom in the same place many times, and you have a recipe for lawn damage (for some people, their dog's urine is strong enough that is can cause damage even during the growing season). Remember, every dog's "internal biology" is different. Some people will talk to their Vet about getting pills to lessen the acidity of the urine (doesn't necessarily work for every dog). We have some customers that give their dogs 1/2 cup of tomato juice every morning (again, this may not work for every dog). You can also try to spread gypsum on the burned out areas to help lessen the acidity, and you can try heavily dousing the ground with a hose several times to dilute the urine concentrated in the spotty areas. In many cases, you will have to re-seed these areas (after diluting the urine) in order to get them to green up again.

4. I have bare spots in my lawn near/under trees, bushes or overhangs that look far worse than they looked last year. What caused this?

As trees and bushes grow and mature, they thicken up and their shade blocks the grass from receiving the amount of sunlight it needs. Some of the grass will begin thinning out due to the heavy shade, and will begin to be noticeable in September/October. Other grass plants, though weak, are able to "hang in there" through the fall. Because they are already weak, the winter weather extremes finish them off, and the shade spots are the largest in the spring. Because your tree(s) or bushes continue to worsen. Here are several options for you:

Option a) "I like my trees/bushes more than the grass underneath." Then you will  either need to get used to thin or nonexistent grass in these shady areas, or, you can lay down mulch in these areas, which is good for the trees and bushes, and will keep the area looking attractive. We can do the mulching for you if you would like.

Option b) If you have not tried before, you (or we) can re-seed the damaged areas with a shade (or dense shade) grass seed mix. If you have already laid down shade mix, and the grass has come up and thinned back out, this approach will not be effective.

Option c) The tree needs branches trimmed in order to allow sunlight to penetrate to the grass plants. For young to middle-age trees, you can trim the lower branches up high enough to allow sunlight in (usually 10 - 15 feet high). For very thick trees like Maple, or more mature trees, the canopy(crown) of the tree needs to be thinned out, as well as lower branches trimmed if needed, in order to provide enough sunlight to the grass. If you have multiple trees in the lawn that are creating significant damage between one another, you may need to take out one or two trees to get the sunlight you need.

Option d) In some cases, you may only want to trim the trees back so much, yet still want grass underneath. We can experiment with something, but it is not cheap. Scientists have recently developed a new grass hybrid that is supposed to handle heavy shade, called poa supina. You (or we) can attempt to work up the soil in these areas, and seed the area with poa supina, and see if it will establish itself there. We have some customers who like this grass, and some who have not felt as lucky. That is why we say it is experimental, because it does not work in every situation.

5. I have spots of bar ground in my yard, but they are NOT in shady areas; the damage spots are in areas that receive plenty of sun.
   Several other options have to be ruled out first:

Option a) Was there anything laying on the ground late in the fall (a shingle, plastic bag, plant debris in a pile, etc), or through the winter that could have choked out the grass?

Option b) Was anything possibly spilled on the lawn (gasoline, oil, Round-Up, etc) in the past 12 months in the damaged area(s)? (PLEASE NOTE: If it was granular fertilizer, you would still be able to see some of the fertilizer in the damaged area. It takes a long time for a concentrated amount of granular fertilizer to disintegrate.)

Option c) Do the spots look like there are a significant amount of stones in the soil (too many stone for grass to fill in), or that there is moss or algae growing in the bare spot (heavy clay or poor soil), or something else that has been hindering grass growth in this area?

Option d) Did tree branches fall and lay for awhile, or was heavy equipment used on the lawn, was a lawn mower or lawn tractor parked on the lawn for awhile?

Option e) Did you have grub damage in your lawn last year?

If none of these are the case, then most likely, it is the result of a patch disease. If the ground is bare, and the spot is circular or ring-shaped, then we encourage you to think back to last summer, or even the last two summers. Did the lawn either have patches that died off in the summer, or spots that changed color from green to a bright straw color, then turn grayish brown? Then the dead spots are a result of a lawn disease that attacked the grass in those areas, and the grass disintegrated over the winter, leaving the bare spots.

The best long term solution is to work up the bare ground and re-seed these bare areas, thus replacing the diseased grass with more virile, younger grass plants. In some cases, if you have an ongoing lawn disease for more than 2 years, your existing grass may continue to contract disease on an ongoing basis. You may then want to consider aerating and overseeding a section of the lawn or the entire lawn (we can do this for you if you wish). In many cases, when grass contracts disease, there are factors that weaken the grass and make it more susceptible to disease, such as poor soil conditions, soil compaction, a layer of thatch, heavy clay soil, very sandy soil, significant amounts of stone in or directly under the topsoil layer, aging grass or grass that is disease prone (especially fine fescue). Therefore, for a long term solution, the contributing factor to the disease or lack of grass growth also needs to be addressed. We can also inspect your lawn and discuss with you solutions for the problems you are facing.

6. I have wide blade grass in my lawn already. Is this crabgrass? What can be done about it?

Crabgrass and foxtail are both summer annual grasses that do not germinate until the weather is warming up significantly (late April to early May), and we do not usually see significant size plants until late May or June. If you are seeing mature wideblade grass plants before May 15, you are more likely seeing a perennial grass that has been there for several years already.

Perennial grasses behave like the bluegrass/ryegrass in your lawn: Once it comes up, it is there permanently. The only way you can get rid of it is to spray a Round-Up type product on the wideblade grass, and about 12 - 18 inches beyond the grass you see to kill any plants that have spread. Please know that it will kill ALL the grass that is sprayed. Glyphosate (Round-Up) is systemic, which means that when you spray the grass blades (get them good), the weed control will move all the way down to the roots to kill the plant. With about 10-14 days and check to be sure none of the wideblade grass is still green (if there is still green, you will need to re-spray it). Then you can tear it out, add topsoil and re-seed the area. It is a lot of work to do this, so it may be wise to do only a section of your lawn at a time over a couple years.

Vital and Green prevents crabgrass and foxtail in the spring with our crabgrass pre-emergence prevention - the longest lasting on the market. If you would like us to control crabgrass in your lawn, please let us know!