How to Fix Bare Spots in a Lawn

A beautiful grass lawn!

When your beautiful green lawn is lush and full, it enhances your home. Bare spots in your lawn are unsightly. The typically occur as a result of chemical burns, dry conditions, compacted soil, or disease. By repairing the bare spots in your grass, you will restore the beauty of your home.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• Aerator
• Compost or peat moss
• Grass seed

Instructions

1. Treat a chemical burn after a winter of ice, snow, and the scattering of salt and chemical ice melt on adjoining sidewalks and streets. Remove several inches of dirt from the affected area. Replace that dirt with fresh, unaffected soil. Patch these spots with grass seed or sod.

2. Counteract dry conditions. If your area experienced a drought, you may have lots of bare or dead looking spots on your lawn. Water these areas until it is moist down to 6 to 8 inches. After watering for awhile, stick something like a weeder or trowel down in the dirt to that depth. Take it out, and see if it is wet. That way, you know you've given it a good soak that reaches to the grass roots. Each week after that, water the bare spots to a depth of 1 inch a few times a week. If this does not produce green grass within a month, reseed the area.

3. Aerate compacted soil. Sometimes soil becomes so compacted that there is no way, air, water, or fertilizer can reach the roots of the grass there. If you have significant areas of lawn like this, rent an aerator and use it on the entire lawn (the whole area will benefit). In each bare area, mix in compost or peat moss, then reseed.

4. Fight against insects or disease. Ask the local cooperative extension service for recommendations to combat these lawn problems.