please help my horrible lawn

[golfing eagles]

Went to contract Feb 2014 on a new home south of 466A and closed by mail in April. Immediately contracted with a top lawn service and homewatch person, who was immediately unhappy with the lawn and attentively adjusted the irrigation settings and met with the lawn service technician. It was felt much of the problem was that the lawn was new, but it seemed to be wet all the time. Saw it late May 2014 and it was horrible, dead patches, weeds, etc. Reported it to home warranty who still felt it was too new a lawn to comment on. No better in October and this April reported it again on a home warranty inspection to be sure it was under the 1 year limit.
I personally met with the owner of the lawn service and senior technician. They were concerned that there was improper grading and drainage, pointed out significant undulations between the house and street in front and golf course behind where water was accumulating and felt the dead patches were due to algae. Home warranty suggested I talk to the builder.
Met personally with the owner of the company that built the house, he blamed the lawn service and tried to switch me to his new best friend--a drywall contractor that just got into the lawn business 8 months earlier. I then met with the head of home warranty who blamed it on the irrigation and pulled neighbors records to compare, which was at best inconclusive.
Since then, I have talked with the Univ of FL agricultural liason to TV, who feels it is a soil compaction and pH problem. I have a soil test out awaiting results. I have, at my own expense, hired an irrigation expert to make sure there were no underground leaks, that the "irrigation computer" was working well, and the settings were correct, which they were. I also paid to have the lawn aerated to help reduce any compaction issues. Just this week was going to re-aerate and top dress, but it was too wet. Yes, we've apparently had rain, but the neighbors don't have this problem
I must say home warranty has been EXCELLENT in general, we had a punch list of 10-15 items that were all handled without issue. But the lawn seems to be another matter.
Still in a bit of a quandary as to the real cause, but there have been multiple houses in my neighborhood that have had French drains installed due to poor grading/drainage. I'd appreciated hearing from anyone who had these drains installed, what their problem was, and did they have a huge fight with warranty to get it done. Thank you.

[Newbeginnings]

We had a bad area between our lawns, the neighbors lawn and ours. We did all the troubleshooting as you have too mentioned. My husband suspected it could be irrigation running from the neighbors draining lawn into ours. We called Jim Baumgarten (irrigation expert) to look it over he asked if he could see our neighbors irrigation settings because our neighbors lawn had fungus. Turns out neighbors irrigation was going on at midnight almost every night for 30 minutes on each zone, (he did not realize it) and because of the grade of his lawn sloping into ours the water was running down into our lawn soaking the area and causing the dead grass. Jim adjusted neighbors irrigation and the problem was solved. We had to rip out all the sod and replace with new, and warranty did install a french drain, but this was before my husband and Jim determined something else was causing the issue, we also drained our pool and had it leak checked, we went thru some expense before we found the problem. The French drain warranty installed was after our 1 year closing, house was about 2 years old when they put it in, we went through all the steps with warranty but they did finally authorize the install. Everyone was pointing fingers at each other. We even chopped up our curbing border on that side of the lawn because the lawn service said that was blocking the drainage. Very frustrating. Good luck and keep on it.

[golfing eagles]

We had a bad area between our lawns, the neighbors lawn and ours. We did all the troubleshooting as you have too mentioned. My husband suspected it could be irrigation running from the neighbors draining lawn into ours. We called Jim Baumgarten (irrigation expert) to look it over he asked if he could see our neighbors irrigation settings because our neighbors lawn had fungus. Turns out neighbors irrigation was going on at midnight almost every night for 30 minutes on each zone, (he did not realize it) and because of the grade of his lawn sloping into ours the water was running down into our lawn soaking the area and causing the dead grass. Jim adjusted neighbors irrigation and the problem was solved. We had to rip out all the sod and replace with new, and warranty did install a french drain, but this was before my husband and Jim determined something else was causing the issue, we also drained our pool and had it leak checked, we went thru some expense before we found the problem. The French drain warranty installed was after our 1 year closing, house was about 2 years old when they put it in, we went through all the steps with warranty but they did finally authorize the install. Everyone was pointing fingers at each other. We even chopped up our curbing border on that side of the lawn because the lawn service said that was blocking the drainage. Very frustrating. Good luck and keep on it.

Sounds familiar. In our case, the problem is the worst between properties, both sides, but also throughout the front and back. Home warranty already pulled both neighbors irrigation records and that does not appear to be the problem. If I pull pix off my phone, you can see an absolute straight line between my property and the golf course---night and day, so I suspect a bad lot of sod might be involved as well, although the course has different grass.

[trimmingthevillages]

do you really wanna know why this soil compaction happens? when each neighborhood is built there is all kinds of large bulldozers,and cranes, and other heavy vehicles on the lawns before the sod is put down and it squeezes the dirt down and basically makes draining impossible.almost every customer in the new section especially, have areas that have no drainange at all and it kills the grass and even when sod is replaced or aerated it does no good.the soil is just to compressed its like a spunge.sorry but so far noone has ever been able to fully fix the problem.

[jblum315]

The other major problem here is that under a thin layer of top soil is nothing but clay.

[dbussone]

The other major problem here is that under a thin layer of top soil is nothing but clay.


You have top soil? Below 466A we have nothing but sod on sand.

[JP]

I had similar issues. For me it was mostly the drainage. This grass doesn't like to be overwatered. I reinstalled the limiters in the sprinkler heads that the sprinkler installers took out so I could reduce the amount of water. Now everything is great plus my bills are about 2/3 of other peoples bill with similar size lawns.

[champion6]

You have top soil? Below 466A we have nothing but sod on sand.I have learned that in Florida, sand IS top soil. :icon_wink:

[dbussone]

I have learned that in Florida, sand IS top soil. :icon_wink:


Amen to that!

[Johnd]

We've been here for 10 years and have done our fair amount of obsession over the condition of the grass. All of the suggestions you received have value but the fact is you have the installation you have. You can make it better by spending a lot of money or just make do with what you have.

We make do with what we have and our lawn is very presentable. Three truths have influenced our outlook. First, the precipitation situation here in central Florida is feast or famine. That affects what you can achieve at certain times of the year. Secondly, learn from the Villages. Nobody is cheaper with water, fertilizer, trimming and weeding then in the common plantings. They may look bad at certain times but they always come back and are quite satisfactory over a long period of time. Lastly I'm influenced by a visual advertisement from a fertilizer company I saw years ago. They laid a bit of sod on a concrete driveway and maintained it for five years. With heroic amounts of fertilizer and water, the driveway always looked great.

Getting a good fertilizer company is not possible. For about $45 a month you're going to get the minimum fertilizer and attention they can give you. You will get more attention if you complain but you will have to complain continually. We've had five different companies and the're all the same. Some of the employees are nicer than others and that's who we've settled in with now.

Lawn cutters are another issue. Most want to cut your lawn very high in the summer; to about three and half inches. That's fine for St. Augustine grass but zoysia needs to be cut lower; about 2 1/2 inches. You'll have to remind them about every three cuttings about the length. The best lawns in our neighborhood over 10 years are the five done by the owners who keep their lawns short and fertilize heavily.

Good luck.

[Jima64]

Unfortunately the cost of fertilizer has skyrocketed the last five years and lawn companies are pressed to use enough and make a profit. Combine this with the limits that some counties and the state have about what you can use, how much and what time of year and it really is a tough situation.

[Gerald]

I found that there is very little fertilizer being put down by most contractors. You need to buy it yourself and apply it to the lawn. The cutting height depends on what grass you have if you don't know bring a sample to home depot and they will tell you. As for brown grass patches. if it only happens part of the year. Then it may be too much or too little water. If it is always there. Then cut the grass in the brown area very low. add seed to the area. or replace it with sod. both will solve the problem.

[dbussone]

I found that there is very little fertilizer being put down by most contractors. You need to buy it yourself and apply it to the lawn. The cutting height depends on what grass you have if you don't know bring a sample to home depot and they will tell you. As for brown grass patches. if it only happens part of the year. Then it may be too much or too little water. If it is always there. Then cut the grass in the brown area very low. add seed to the area. or replace it with sod. both will solve the problem.


The contractors are not putting down any fertilizer- they are leaving that discussion to the owner and the lawn care provider.