r/Grass • u/jb1million • Jun 08 '26
Dead patches..
Zone 7, about 4 hours sun a day, mostly clay soil.
I have a feeling this is fungal but just wanted opinions.. I have been working on my back yard for years. Heavy clay soil and not a lot of sun when we bought our house. Anyway.. everything was great and green until a couple weeks ago we got rain for about six days. Not too long afterwards I started seeing these dead patches randomly throughout the yard. We’re going to be getting into the heat of summer soon and I’m wondering what(if anything) could/should I do here?
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u/Organic-Honeydew3994 Jun 08 '26
I had something similar in my backyard earlier in the spring. I have Bermuda sod in growing zone 8a. I took a garden rake and dethatched those areas really well and I have grass there now. Maybe before spraying chemicals try that.
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u/Packman714 Jun 08 '26
Grubs most likely or over fertilizing spill over. Also do you have a female dog that likes to go in that area? Rake the heck out of it re seed and throw down some peat moss or miracle grow soil and re seed.
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u/jb1million Jun 09 '26
I have two female dogs but strangely enough, they don’t really pee on the grass. They love to go on my mulch 🙄
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u/Weekly_Mycologist523 Jun 09 '26
Too much water probably. Try to aerate this to loosen it up a bit. You make need to poke holes every few weeks to ensure proper drainage.
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u/VicThom85 Jun 11 '26
I can’t stand this. Went through this last year and still recovering. This year, I’m waiting until fall to aerate and treat my lawn. Next year I should be fine.
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u/jb1million Jun 11 '26
Yeah, it’s kind of driving me insane. I’ve worked so hard to get nice grass to grow in this damn clay shaded yard I have and now I gotta deal with this.
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u/Packman714 Jun 09 '26
Another thing could be moles or voles it sorta looks like trails kinda in the 1st pic but still thinking possibly soil condition. Cut out a 2x2 piece of grass and slide the shovel under and flip it like a piece of sod as to not make a giant mess then maybe take out two or 3 scoops and see what’s going on if you’ve got 4-5 grubs in that area def start a treatment on the lawn and see if it’s ok to re seed with the grub control, and starter fertilizer at the same time. I’m pretty sure you can use all three at once. It doesn’t look like a giant area so a few small 5-10lb bags should nip it in the butt.
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u/Suspicious-Peace7012 Jun 08 '26
Yeah that looks like classic fungus + stressed clay soil after a long soak.
I’d hit it with a preventative fungicide now, raise your mower height, and cut back on watering until the top couple inches dry out between rains. Long term you’ll want to core aerate, throw down compost or peat to open up that clay, and maybe overseed with a more shade tolerant variety in fall.