I'm in NJ also and my KBG tends to put out seed heads in the spring, so I don't think that in itself indicates a problem.

That's what Morph keeps telling me. I'm trying not to second guess His Highness, but it's hard when my lawn looks so bad. Right now I'm more concerned about these stressed out areas...I don't want dead spots all summer!

When was your last rainfall, and have these sections started to look like this just in the last day or two?

We should note that two of those patches with seeds look more annua-y in this shot, but the other patches definitely don't...

Basically zero rain in the last 2 weeks. Time to get the sprinklers on I guess. But wouldn't have soaking it with a hose shown at least some improvement? I hit it pretty good...with shampoo in the mix too.

It depends on the amount of water. If it was to distribute the 2-3 oz per K of shampoo, then I wouldn't expect the lawn to have improved from that amount of water.

Soaking until the soil puddled a bit, letting it soak in, and repeating four or five times? I'd expect improvement.

As of today, my lawn started to exhibit severe shock (I've been ignoring the minor shock that's been there for about three days at this point as temperatures just keep rising to late June levels). So I started to water. Like you, we're now 2 weeks since any rainfall, 3 weeks since anything significant.

After 90 minutes per zone on the irrigation system, it's looking much better.

Many lawns have brown spots similar to yours. A quick fix that we offer at miragelawnpainting.com is lawn painting service. You may be surprised how great it looks and lasts. Golf courses and professional sports team's grounds crews have been using this trick for years. As long as there is grass there, dead or alive, your lawn comes out looking perfectly green and you still conserve our vital natural resource. Check if there are any lawn painting services in your area. If you are in Fresno, CA or surrounding areas check us out at miragelawnpainting.com. Good luck with your lawn!

When they removed the trees, did they pull the stump out or did they grind it up, bury the ground up chips, and cover it with topsoil? or did they do something else?

I miss the old gardenweb...Morph and dchall should be the ones with "Pro" next to their name, not companies trying to sell services. Anyway...

Morph - I didn't let it puddle and come back but I ran the hose for at least 3-5 minutes on these two small spots...I thought that was a lot of water but I guess not. Luckily I have an awesome sprinkler company...I left a voicemail last night and they were already here and gone. I'm currently running the two zones that cover my front lawn (where these spots are) for 60 min each. We'll see if that helps.

dchall - they did grind the stumps but I'm sure there is sawdust down there. The grass survived last year though which is why I'm confused...especially since I added more top soil to level it out last fall. Hopefully just lack of water. How fast will it spring back if that's the problem? Later today? Tomorrow?

Except I'm not a pro, I'm technically a hobbyist. My argument is that this means I'm interested in helping you achieve a beautiful lawn (and beautiful gardens) and don't have any stake in making money out of it. I do it because I like helping other people achieve the perfect yard. You'll note that I don't tend to recommend a specific company for anything unless the price is very good or the item is very hard to find.

Post-watering, grass should rebound in two hours. Three if it's pretty badly stressed. Several days if it was going dormant, several weeks if dormant. If it doesn't then water wasn't the problem, but it's a cheap initial thing to try.

Sawdust...there will be a ton of the stuff from tree removal there, and it's going to suck up nitrogen like nobody's business. However, it won't kill the lawn, just render it very light green and slow-growing. To counter that, slop on Milorganite (chosen here as a specific company because of the modest amount of fast nitrogen in it and large amount of slow nitrogen) at 20-30 pounds per thousand in that location even if you already fed organically. That'll overwhelm the system, add nitrogen, and restore the lawn quickly. Oceangro, Baystate, or a half rate high-nitrogen synthetic feeding plus any other organic will also be just fine and work the same.

On the up side, once decayed that sawdust will give you fantastic soil in that spot, and ultimately end up sustaining the lawn better than standard soil. But decay takes years.

For now, let's see what it looks like this evening.

(tapping teeth) If you want to, you could spray some of the lighter-colored seeding tufts with Tenacity. If they're P. annua, they'll start to fade toward white in ten days or so, but reapplication of the Tenacity will be required to make them eventually (slowly) go away. If they're not P. annua, only slight whitening happens, and the patch will recover in a month or so with no harm done.

In their defense, spray painting it would be a lot easier. But it wouldn't solve any problems over the long term...

Lots of California and other semi-arid lawns are spray painted during summer. It's a valid way of not using water but still having a nice looking lawn. And it won't hurt a dormant lawn in the slightest, but might make you think you don't need to give it any water at all--which isn't true.

Ok... I hope to see some improvement later.

I sprayed Tenacity (lightly) over my whole yard on 4/18. The spots that started to fade I hit again a little harder on 5/2, this time with Bonide Turbo Spreader Sticker in the mix. Nothing has turned white, but it's definitely unmasked some poa. I'll probably spot spray again in a week.

It's not perfect but it has definitely improved. I will run a full cycle in the morning and hopefully things will be back to normal.

morpheus said: "Lots of California and other semi-arid lawns are spray painted during
summer. It's a valid way of not using water but still having a nice
looking lawn. And it won't hurt a dormant lawn in the slightest, but
might make you think you don't need to give it any water at all--which
isn't true."

Maybe I shouldn't be too judgmental, but painting your lawn for any reason (but especially to mask an underlying problem) just sounds stupid. It must be some kind of vegetable dye. I'd rather have either a perfect light brown lawn, or go with a desert-scape.

I suppose it depends. If I were living there, I'd xeriscape. It just makes more sense in an arid environment.

hey tim I'm sorry you feel that way. I was trying to give you an option you may not have known about.

Daniel I agree with you but not everyone has money to put in new landscaping. Lawn painting is very inexpensive.

Mirage - obviously there is a market for what you do, so more power to you. I don't get it, not even a little, but that shouldn't bother you. Just one opinion.