HELP!!! HAS MY LAWN BEEN MURDERED???

My lawn seems to be dead. I planted a new lawn with a mixture of perennial seeds this spring and have enjoyed watching its growth all summer. I have not added a fertilizer since I planted it nor did I add any weed killers (we have large families of toads and turtles that use our ditches as birthing grounds or living quarters). I've watered often, using less and less water as the grass established itself. I've only cut the lawn three times this summer- waiting until it was five inches tall before each cutting. I've removed most of the thatch, keeping small amounts but removing large clumps that might suffocate. About the second week in September, the day I cut the lawn, I noticed the blades were entirely brown. My first thought was "not enough water", so I watered. We also received a three-day rain spell... water didn't help. We did have a few bald spots that I re-seeded in early September. THOSE spots are nice and green. My husband thinks it will come back in spring... I am less certain. I think that if drought was a problem it would have sprung back by now and that since new seedings are still green at this point in fall, we should expect the same from the more established batch. Does the fact that it's new seed affect its dormancy time? Should I reseed? If so, when should I do so?

My first question is, how much preparation did you do before you seeded? Is the soil fairly loose or did you till a couple of inches deep before you seeded? The grass would die after sprouting if the roots could not penetrate the soil.

My next question is, did you use only perennial grass seed? Many of the mixes you buy are mostly annuals for quick fill as the annuals take time to establish.

Which perennial grass seeds were in your mix? Some will go dormant or turn brown when weather cools. Since you are in zone 4, I am going to assume you are already getting some cool temps.

Is there a place you could dig out a plug and check the roots? You should be able to tell if they are dead or alive.

I'm by no means a grass expert. These are just the easy questions.

Thanks for your reply; I am in the process of researching all the options you've listed.

My husband and I spent a lot of time preparing the soil. We dragged the surface using a piece of chain link fence, and then removed all visible rocks. After that, we dragged the soil again. We repeated this process a few times until the soil surface was smooth, relatively rock-free and somewhat flat. We then let the soil sit for a few days to settle down again (we didn't want the seeds burying too far down into the soil) but not so long as that the soil needed retiling. When we planted seeds, we chose a blend that had a small ratio of annual seeds (are property slopes and we wanted to anchor the loosened soil quickly) but was largely made up of perennial grasses. I can't remember which blend we ended up with, but I do know that we chose the one with the lowest percentage of weed seeds and inert matter. I'm looking into which varieties we settled on so as to research their dormancy times.
I will pull a plug of grass to see if the roots penetrated. This may be a dumb question, but how do I determine if roots are dead or alive?

A closer image. Note: When I dug out this piece, I took my trowl to about a one inch depth. When I pulled up this grass it still made a ripping sound... indicating there were more roots that I left behind.

Have you had a frost.... looks like the whole area has been nipped by frosty to me.....

Yes we have had a frost. The trouble is no one else in my neighborhood has brown grass... I've been looking around town and no one else seems to be in my situation. I was hoping my situation was unique in that I have a new lawn. Maybe that could make the grass fall dormant earlier???

Ln,

That certainly seems reasonable. Being a new lawn, it hasn't had a chance to dig its root down very far.

I feel for ya. My lawn also is new and I am growing from seeds in sand. It won't be until the end of NEXT summer when the centipede runners might have filled in all the thin spots.

I expect mine will want to go dormant sometime soon. It's happening to the new grass out by the highway and we haven't even had a freeze yet.

Molly
:^)))