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Gardening

Lawn lije straw and look dead

(16 Posts)
Allsorts Fri 18-Jul-25 19:27:48

I think i know the answer to this but wanted reassurance. My large lawn looks dead, I have it cut every two weeks, but missed the last two because of the heatwave. This means not having the man to cut it. It looks dead as we have not had rain for weeks. Just looking at it there is just one area about 12” diameter that looks green. There is nothing to cut. Should I tell him once more to leave it two weeks or just have him do upit to save letting him down.
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Septimia Fri 18-Jul-25 19:33:24

My mum's lawn usually looked dry and dead in summer. She cut it too short too often. Ours didn't because DH didn't cut it as often.

So I'd leave it. Someone with more lawn knowledge than me might have a better suggestion.

Claremont Fri 18-Jul-25 19:34:41

Are there any other jobs he could do around the garden or house- not his fault if the weather is too hot.

valdavi Fri 18-Jul-25 19:37:03

I'd leave it if there's not many lawn weeds. We have coltsfoot & so trimming it helps cut them down before they seed,we have mower on high setting.

AmberGran Fri 18-Jul-25 19:37:11

All the lawns in our road look dead. It's like the desert round here - apart from the one plastic lawn that sticks out like a sore thumb. They don't usually take long to green up again later in the year but need a bit of looking after to get them back into shape.

I'm thinking of making a clover lawn in the front but the amount of weeds we get in the lawn makes me think it will just end up as a weedy area (not at all the same as a wildflower area).

Allsorts Fri 18-Jul-25 19:38:59

I asked him but he said no. Think it will pull up the lawn if he does mow as it is like kindle, so I have to be brave but he might tell me he won’t be coming backl

winterwhite Fri 18-Jul-25 21:26:00

Well that would be unreasonable of him. He must see that there is scarcely anything left to cut.

Cabbie21 Fri 18-Jul-25 21:58:52

My neighbour kindly mows my front lawn. This week he has done it on a higher setting. Alan Titchmarsh often tells us not to worry, lawns will recover.

Allira Fri 18-Jul-25 22:02:54

valdavi

I'd leave it if there's not many lawn weeds. We have coltsfoot & so trimming it helps cut them down before they seed,we have mower on high setting.

Yes, isn't it amazing how the weeds wild flowers survive when the grass looks completely dead. Coltsfoot, fox and cubs etc, all flowering well.

The grass will recover.

The man who cuts our lawn may come to do some heavy weeding, pruning instead 🤞

Georgesgran Fri 18-Jul-25 22:09:41

It was money for old rope when my gardener came yesterday! I think I paid him to play with DD2’s dog and have a cup of tea with me. It’s swings and roundabouts though, as there’ll be other times when he really earns his money.
My lawn (weed patch) looked dead, but we’ve had a couple of showers here this week and it’s greening up again.

Diffuser Fri 18-Jul-25 22:18:55

Our lawn looked very similar a few years ago. and we sought advice from a professional. I hope I'm not breaking any rules here (apologies, it's not an advertisement) but he recommended '20.10.10' lawn feed. We took him at his word and the difference was somewhat miraculous.

Maybe you could ask your gardener to do it for you.

Allira Fri 18-Jul-25 22:23:58

Our lawn isn't really lawn.

It would be wildflowers amongst the saplings if left!!

Ziplok Fri 18-Jul-25 22:46:59

Your lawn will come back to being green as soon as we get significant rainfall. I remember the same problem when we had the very extreme heat in 2022 - the grass looked dead and straw like. Once the rain came and the temperature lowered it recovered.
Ours looks really patchy and dry once more, but it will green up again - grass is really quite tough.

Mt61 Sat 19-Jul-25 00:20:04

I read that grass goes into some kind of hibernation when it’s dry & doesn’t need watering every night, unless it’s a new lawn of course.
We have a couple of round patches of dry, yellow grass, but I think that’s cats pee that’s done those.

Luckygirl3 Sat 19-Jul-25 09:02:15

I am in a house built only five years ago. The "lawn" was simply turf on rubble!

Now that there has been no rain you can see where ost of the rubble was put in trenches as there are vast rectangles of dry grass amongst bits that are slightly greener. I will simply hope it comes back....

Allira Sat 19-Jul-25 11:11:37

Luckygirl3

I am in a house built only five years ago. The "lawn" was simply turf on rubble!

Now that there has been no rain you can see where ost of the rubble was put in trenches as there are vast rectangles of dry grass amongst bits that are slightly greener. I will simply hope it comes back....

Our front lawn is like that, Luckygirl, about half an inch of top soil on top of builder's rubble.
I did say when we looked around the development that I felt sorry for anyone who bought this house, looking at the front garden. Then we bought it 😁