Why is the grass dying?

The winter lawn that was planted last September was planted improperly and has significantly prolonged the dormancy of the regular turf-grass.

The regular lawn will slowly recover in the coming weeks but will likely be weaker in 2020 than in prior years.

Why does the summer turf at the Village of Bent Tree, which is only 35 feet from the LBT main entry, look plush (second photo), and the lawn at LBT look like a dying field (first photo).

What Happened?

In short, the former landscapers planted an inexpensive rye grass which grows fast and very tall (short is better). They cut the grass at long intervals (every two weeks) which exacerbated  the situation.  As a result, the regular lawn was in the dark all spring and remained dormant (see photo 3). A winter lawn should not be this dense or long.

What is visible now is mostly dead winter rye grass and the slow emergence of the regular turf-grass that was in the dark for so long.

Photo 1 Grass at LoBT entry June 10th

Photo 2 Grass at Village entry June 10th

Photo 3 Winter lawn at LoBT April 7th

This is one of the issues that led to the termination of the landscaper.

The Association has increased watering as the ground is drying out much faster with so little grass cover to hold the water in. TruGreen/Chemlawn was called out to do an additional fertilization to give the grass a boost.

Winter lawns are nice, but they need to be installed carefully so as not to damage the regular (summer) turf grass.

All other landscaping articles are here.