Dig into the soil and find out what might be the balding problem first. If there are no white fat grub worms eating the roots, watch for cinch bugs. Ordinary earthworms are a good sign. Pillbugs/ rolley pollies often get in grass, as do ants and termites. Tiny firey red ants are harmless, slow, and help the soil aeration.
If no sign of bugs of any kind, look at the blades of grass and the roots of the growing grass around it. It could be nematodes. Smell of the soil in the bare spot. If you smell mold, you may have to replace the soil there. If you smell gasoline or oil, you might have spilled it each time you refilled the mower over a time.
If the spots are perfectly round, you may have "fairy ring" mildew, and need to spray for that. If none of these things are your problem, simply plug each spot with a spade full of grass of the same size from a healthy spot, after hard raking the bald spot soil so the roots can attach themselves. Cover the edges of the plug with some soil, a piece of newspaper for three days, after wetting well, and weight each corner with heavier rocks to prevent paper blowing away until the transplant takes off. This shades the new transplants while they are getting adjusted to their new location and not as likely to go into any sort of shock. Do the spring transplanting in late afternoon rather than morning or noon. This gives them all night to adjust to the new spot. Do not fertilize.
You will have less luck with seeds, in my opinion, because spring is here and birds are hungry for seeds! Plus the seeds need to be watered daily, whereas the transplants need only every other day or so. Good luck and god bless. ": )
Nursery centers do sell small amounts of grass seed. You might bring a swatch of your existing grass so that a knowlegeable person could make sure the seed might match it.
I don't know if this really works, but I am going to try it this spring. Lay some grass seed in the bare spot and lay used coffee grounds on top of it. the idea is the worms in the soil will come for the grass seed, leave their droppings is great fertilizer and when they go through the ground they aerate it.
How about cutting turf patches from the edge of your garden? Then replace the bald turf patches to the edge, or leave it open and plant flowers and plants taken from some wild area (woods, plains, what ever you have locally)
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Request: Growing Grass on Bald Spots
Archived on 03/20/2009
Can anyone help me. We recently bought a new home with a nice size yard that has a pool. But the pool sits pretty far back in the yard. There are a lot of bald spots in the grass which makes a lot of mud. I put down grass seed the problem is there isn't a lot of sun where the bald spots are. Can anyone give me suggestions on how to grow this grass back. Thank you. Kate
Answers:
RE: Growing Grass on Bald Spots
You need to buy shade grass seed and cover with burlap and water well. The burlap protects from seed stealer birds and helps keep the soil moist. The grass will grow right through the burlap and you pull it off gently when you get a good show of growth. (04/11/2005)
By Susan from Hamilton
RE: Growing Grass on Bald Spots
I had that problem last year and I used the Lawn Patch Shady Mixture. It is grass seed, mulch and fertilizer. It worked great, for a shady spot under my tree and it came up so fast and blended with my existing lawn too! (04/11/2005)
