If it does look worse after mowing, like the left side of the picture below, chances are you're either cutting too much off at once, or mowing with a dull blade. Mowing properly can help your lawn look terrific. Mowing improperly can encourage weeds and browning.
Lawns suffering from heat stress often experience discoloration – either to entire blades of grass or just the tips. However, this symptom can be a tricky one. Many other turf issues – such as insect damage and disease – can also cause grass blades to turn straw-colored or brown.
Improper mowing or watering habits, too much or too little fertilizer, thatch and compacted soil all increase the chances of disease. Diseases, such as lawn fungus, often start as yellow, tan or brown areas of varying sizes in the lawn.
Thankfully, your dead grass will probably grow back with the proper care if you've caught the problem quickly (within about 3-5 weeks). Depending on why it died in the first place, you'll need to aerate, water, and/or manage unwanted pests.
Wilting Grass
But overwatering can cause similar symptoms. Keep an eye out for signs of overwatering such as leaves and lawns that appear dull and faded, in addition to grass that does not spring back into shape after being pressed down.
Nitrogen-deficient turfgrass turns yellow and has reduced vigor. Iron deficiency is common in alkaline soils. Symptoms of iron deficient turf include yellow or bleached spots, which give leaf blades a mottled appearance. Potassium deficiency causes leaves to turn yellow and brown on margins.
It's Noticeably Wilting
One of the earliest and most obvious signs of dehydration in grass is wilting, when blades begin to curl over instead of standing up straight. If you don't take action right away, you will soon see the grass start to change color (which we discuss in more detail below).
The grass may appear matted. It may be gray or pink, depending on the type of fungus that has caused it. Brown patch may start out as a small patch of brownish grass, but can quickly spread and damage your entire lawn.
What are signs of acidic soil? Stunted grass growth, wilting grass blades or yellow spots in lawn.
Brown spots that appear after mowing are often caused by a dull mower blade. Dull blades will shred the grass instead of cutting it cleanly and will damage the ends. This causes the tips of the grass to die and turn brown. You can easily fix this by sharpening or replacing the blades on your mower.
The concept and process of aeration is simple: take a strong, long-handled fork out of storage, put on a pair of boots or wellies with thick soles and use your weight to dig the fork down into the lawn to create small holes. Leave a set of holes every two feet or so until the entire lawn has been aerated.
Iron Turns It Blue-Green
Iron helps in the production of chlorophyll and nutrient and oxygen transport throughout the plant but for you and me, looking for the visuals, it pushes a deeper, darker blue-green color. Milorganite has higher iron content compared to most fertilizers on the shelf.
One of the most obvious signs that your lawn needs fertilizing is discoloration. If your grass is turning brown or yellow, it may not be getting the proper nutrients it needs. This is particularly common in the spring, as the grass is waking up from its winter dormancy and beginning to grow again.
Lawn Nitrogen Deficiency
If you're not sure if your lawn is lacking nitrogen, here are some signs to look for: Slowed growth. Yellowing patches. Thinning patches.
Signs You Over-fertilized Your Lawn
But days or even weeks later, you'll notice the yellowing dead patches or stripes in the areas that got too much fertilizer. You might notice more subtle changes sooner. Maybe you're not seeing new growth. Or maybe just the tips of your grass blades are yellow or brown.
You might think that watering a little bit every day is a smart approach, but you'd be wrong. It's better to water “deeply and infrequently,” Cutler says. About a third of an inch every two to three days is a good goal.
If you simply toss the grass seed onto the soil, you will end up with poor germination. Thoroughly rake the area to remove any loose debris and to create grooves in the soil.
Reinvigorate Your Lawn
By spreading grass seed over your existing lawn, you can thicken up the thin areas, and your lawn will start to look terrific again.
The way that grass grows (or spreads) depends on the specific grass type that you're dealing with. Some grass grows laterally and will naturally fill in bare spots on the lawn. These are either Rhizome grasses or Stolon grasses. Rhizome grasses grow with spreading root systems underneath the soil.