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My lawn is half green and half brown. I can't figure it out.
The blades that are green look great. But there is a 50/50 mixture of
dead brown grass that is still rooted to the ground.

Last year I mistakenly thought this was thatch, so I bought a
dethatcher. But then when I learned how to check thatch by looking at
a cross section of the soil and grass, I found I had no thatch
problem.

Here's what it looked like last year:
http://www.mbsoundworks.com/tempstuff/grass1.jpg
http://www.mbsoundworks.com/tempstuff/grass2.jpg

The pictures were taken before the drought, so it wasn't a water
problem. You can see what it looks like compared to my neighbor's
yard!

Can anyone help me?

I'm in northwestern Illinois.
As the lawns are waking up, I can already see that it's going to look
the same as it did last year.

I plug-aerated in the Fall, and put down winterizer.
I've put down my Scotts pre-emergent/fertilizer already.

I'm willing to do the work, but I'm at a loss as to what the problem
is!

You may have grasses blended in that go dormant during cooler weather, like
zosia...

wrote in message
...
My lawn is half green and half brown. I can't figure it out.
The blades that are green look great. But there is a 50/50 mixture of
dead brown grass that is still rooted to the ground.

Last year I mistakenly thought this was thatch, so I bought a
dethatcher. But then when I learned how to check thatch by looking at
a cross section of the soil and grass, I found I had no thatch
problem.

Here's what it looked like last year:
http://www.mbsoundworks.com/tempstuff/grass1.jpg
http://www.mbsoundworks.com/tempstuff/grass2.jpg

The pictures were taken before the drought, so it wasn't a water
problem. You can see what it looks like compared to my neighbor's
yard!

Can anyone help me?

I'm in northwestern Illinois.
As the lawns are waking up, I can already see that it's going to look
the same as it did last year.

I plug-aerated in the Fall, and put down winterizer.
I've put down my Scotts pre-emergent/fertilizer already.

I'm willing to do the work, but I'm at a loss as to what the problem
is!

On 13 Apr 2003 19:39:44 GMT, Brewer
wrote:

I would have to agree with David on this, it looks like a combination of
cool season and warm season grasses. Many of the bags of grass seed you
see on the market today have such a mix. Did you seed the lawn yourself,
or did someone else?


No...it was like this when we bought the house.
I wish I'd read up on this 4 years ago, I might have a nice lawn by
now.

So what should I look for in a grass seed?
How do I find out what kind of grass I have (the green stuff, that
is...I don't think I want more of the brown stuff g) ?