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schocked1

unexplained lawn and weed loss

Schocked1
12 years ago

Last night I picked up the toys off of the lawn...nothing looked out of place or abnormal.

This morning I went outside to water the garden and flowerbeds and I noticed that a 3x4 foot section of my lawn was white-ish. The dandelions and other weeds were blackened and wilting as well in this same section.

We have not had the lawnmower out as yet, so I doubt that it was gasoline. We do not use weed killers as we have children. We have not used any fertilizers. There has not been too much rain, nor has it been very hot or dry.

There has been nothing different at all.

We don't drink or smoke, and the only liquid (aside from water) that could have possibly been spilled on the grass is juice.

The section in question is far enough away from our 6 foot fence that the neighbors could not have possibly sprayed or dumped anything on it.

We do have many worms,pillbugs,( not really pillbugs, but the ones that look like them) and ants on our property, but I've never seen this happen before.

Does anyone have any guesses?

Would it be ok to re-seed that area right away?

Should I dig it all out first?

Help! lol

Thank you for reading this.

Comments (4)

  • dchall_san_antonio
    12 years ago

    Can you post a picture?
    What kind of grass?
    How often and how long do you water?
    Were any of the toys in the area of the kill zone?

  • Schocked1
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Sorry, no idea of what kind of grass it is. We only bought this place 3 years ago...and the "grass/lawn" that we found under all the weeds,thistles, garbage, compost, etc had already been here for about 28 years.
    We appear to have several types of grass though. Some of it is very short, thin like hair, and light green. Some of it is very dark, a little thicker,and slow growing. The third kind is "crab grass" I guess. It is very tall, medium green, very thick, and won't die.
    The stuff that turned white overnight was thin like hair.
    The dandelions turned brown/black and crispy...almost like they were parched...yet all of the rest of the yard is green and lush... and the other dandelions are bigger than heads of romaine lettuce.

    None of the toys were within 5 feet or so of the area.
    As far as posting a pic...I don't know how. I'm computer illiterate lol. I have searched the posts on here pertaining to uploading pics, but haven't found anything that I can do or understand...sorry.
    Our snow only melted awhile ago, and there was so much of it that we haven't had any need to water...there has also been just enough rain recently as well.
    I only have to water the flowerbeds and part of the garden that are protected by overhangs.
    On average though (last year) I would water every second day or so, in the morning, for about half an hour to an hour. We pay for our water here, so we try not to use too much.
    Sorry I couldn't be of much help...

  • bpgreen
    12 years ago

    You didn't have something like a pane of glass or the top from a grill sitting on that spot by any chance, did you? I've seen that happen when there's something sitting on the grass that causes the sun to concentrate and sort of bake a spot for a while.

  • Schocked1
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Nope. None of that. The spot is too close to my garden fence. At first I thought of UFO's but ruled that out quickly enough. lol. Just kidding.
    Then I thought that perhaps the sun had "bounced off" of something shiny...but there was nothing like that.
    It's almost as if a child had sat there all day with a magnifying glass...but no.
    I've been sitting here racking my brain, trying to figure this all out...
    I remember that the day before this happened, my youngest son and I had "washed off" some of his sand. It had been full of dirt and grass, so we spread out a tarp, placed the sand on it,ran it through a kitchen strainer, and rinsed it off. The tarp was placed about 7 feet from where the "burn" occurred though. I'm not sure if the water run-off would have reached that area or not.
    I would hate to think that playground sand (new bags) would contain anything that could potentially hurt a child.
    The spot is only a foot away from my veggie garden as well, so that has me a bit worried.
    I've checked my son and the other children that were playing in it, and none of them has burn marks or anything else that would ascertain that there were chemicals of any kind in the sand.
    The only other thing that had happened the day before was the eating of popsicles...they may have dropped them there, but if it's popsicles doing that to grass and dandelions then they should be sued and forced to rename it as weed control. lol
    Could a certain kind of insect have done this? Worms? Ants?
    I've seen this sort of thing when there's been a wildfire in the area and vegetation has been scorched, but...I just don't get it.
    It's been raining on and off for 2 days now and the weather is just above freezing. It's supposed to go down below zero tonight...
    I haven't noticed any change at all in the area.
    I watered it quite well yesterday, and the rain has done it's job as well. The rest of the yard is looking much greener today.