Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Lawn spots from Fido or snow mold
We love our dogs but not so much what they do to our lawns over the winter. Spot may have left some dead spots around the yard.
You can buy a lawn repair kit at most garden centers or you can mix your own. After the soil has warmed up and isn’t wet, you can lift out the dead grass, loosen the soil and mix a handful of seed with a bucket of a good soil product, then spread it out over Fido or Fifi’s spots.
The best grass seed is a mix of Kentucky blue grass with fine fescues and perennial ryegrass. Be sure to read the label for sun or shade areas.
Water and mulch it to keep it moist and keep the seeds in place. Spring is the second best time to plant grass seed. Mid-August to mid-September is the best time.
However, with ugly dead spots, we want to get a start as soon as possible, once you get some grass started, it will help keep weeds at bay.
With snow melt, you may discover snow mold in your lawn.
Pink or Grey snow mold starts in the winter with infected plant debris that’s been left on the lawn. Do NOT rake PINK snow mold.
This fungus will continue to grow if the area remains wet and cold. Rake out any snow drifts you may have. You can rake out grey snow mold (this helps the area dry faster) but the pink snow mold needs a fungicide.
Fungicides are not recommended for grey snow mold as it doesn’t generally kill a lawn. MOST of us have the grey kind.