Okay, so I live in the PNW. The most common lawn problems in my area are clay soil and soil compaction. I, being of limited tunnel vision, assumed those were everybody's most common problem until I came here and learned other people have different soil! (Gasp!)

Now I'm curious. What are the most common lawn problems in your area and what have you tried to fix it?

Does "lawn problems" include weeds?

We just have volunteer pasture grass for our lawn. Lots of weeds, but therefore a bit more colorful than a sterile manicured lawn. I'm OK with it. And moles...are not my friends...

I've taken care of lawns professionally for many people over the past 15 or more years. The # 1 problem I see people make is over-watering. The # 2 problem I see people make is, over-watering and the The # 3 problem I see people make is, over-watering.
Take all Root Rot(TARR), Brown Patch, Pythium Blight and a few others come from over-watering. People think that adding water to the lawn will keep it cool when its hot, which is just not true. If you keep your lawn wet then you cut the oxygen to the roots and cause problems to the roots. Its so important to mimic mother nature and allow your ground to dry between watering.
Another problem with over watering, is the City water is alkaline so it doesn't leach heavy metals into people's drinking water. Alkaline Water will raise the pH over time and give fungus the perfect environment to thrive.
Alkaline water will cause Iron Lock Out in your lawn because the higher pH in the soil. All these problems could be avoided just by cutting the water.

Bermuda grass taking over my other 'whatever' grass and everything else--seriously, how can you get rid of Bermuda grass without killing or ripping out everything else??

If it grows well for you (apparently so), what do you have against it? Just curious.

Invades perennial gardens-- deep, tough runners and roots grow right under and through almost everything. I like clumpy grasses in my gardens but not zip grass--ugh. I dug everything out of an area that was badly invaded and sifted through the soil trying to get all the roots. Had to pitch several perennials because I couldn't get it divested without wrecking them. Put in a twelve inch deep impenetrable barrier along the 'lawn'. Didn't put it far enough to account for the advancement of the Bermuda grass uphill replacing my 'lawn' so the invasion was merely temporarily thwarted in one area and continues unabated uphill in that bed and others.

As far as its grassyness --it's alright I guess. I like the look and feel of our other grass better, but this stuff is indestructible and doesn't even get thirsty biggest downside is it goes dormant in the winter so looks dead and ugly half the year while it advances underground.

I never planted it. Seed heads blow around like little tumble weeds and find new homes.

oneeyeluke said:I've taken care of lawns professionally for many people over the past 15 or more years. The # 1 problem I see people make is over-watering. The # 2 problem I see people make is, over-watering and the The # 3 problem I see people make is, over-watering.
Take all Root Rot(TARR), Brown Patch, Pythium Blight and a few others come from over-watering. People think that adding water to the lawn will keep it cool when its hot, which is just not true. If you keep your lawn wet then you cut the oxygen to the roots and cause problems to the roots. Its so important to mimic mother nature and allow your ground to dry between watering.
Another problem with over watering, is the City water is alkaline so it doesn't leach heavy metals into people's drinking water. Alkaline Water will raise the pH over time and give fungus the perfect environment to thrive.
Alkaline water will cause Iron Lock Out in your lawn because the higher pH in the soil. All these problems could be avoided just by cutting the water.

I've been thinking on this for a while. I knew people over watered, but I never gave the pH a minute's thought. Then, when I did, I thought, oh, surely not in Portland. Portland wouldn't do that. HA! I started investigating... Our drinking water ranges between 7.4 and 8.1! Lawns prefer 6.5 to 7.0. So even the lowest pH water coming out of the tap is too high for lawns, and too high for gardens! Thank you so much for pointing out the obvious! You see better with one eye than I do with two!

I found it interesting that temperature affects pH. Heat lowers pH. That is something I didn't know and also wouldn't have guessed.

Thank you so much!

Crab grass and Spurge now joined by Nut Sedge.

The usual, crab grass, weeds, etc. Unfortunately this year, I also have a big problem with crane flies, which I learned are not male mosquitoes today...

Yardiac said:The usual, crab grass, weeds, etc. Unfortunately this year, I also have a big problem with crane flies, which I learned are not male mosquitoes today...

I'd never heard of crane flies, so I looked them up. I've seen them, but never paid them much mind. I've never seen them in my soil (yet.) My lawn isn't healthy enough to support them!
I'm sure as I improve the soil, they'll move in to dine.

In the Dallas Ft Worth area Brown Patch is showing up again due to the excess rains and cool temps. It starts with a yellow spot and then in a week, turns into a big circles in the lawns.When people keep their lawns wet most of the summer it raises the pH and makes perfect environment for fungus. Oct is the 2nd rainiest month of the year and the ground is saturated so spores are flying everywhere looking for a host. Only the weakest yards-- the ones that are over fertilized, and over watered, during the Summers get it. Once you get, you got it forever because it will lie dormant until the right conditions arise, and Boom shows up again. It is found mostly in the wealthy neighborhoods because they water too much and fertilize every year. No fungicide can stop it so far in the last 15 or 20 years, so don't waste your money on it. I've seen a lot of money wasted on fungicide and it doesn't work.

Ants and weeds, I hate them both equally. I prefer Bermuda grass to St. Augustine which is popular down here. I have a relatively large yard by typical suburban standards. Its to big for me get rid of as much grass as I would like.

I have a clay soil problems too but I have been working diligently to improve the flower and vegetable beds by composting. All the coffee grounds, teabags and eggshell go in the ground. Its a slow process but I'm starting to see some improvement.

If I had my way my entire yard would be cottage garden with vegetable beds.

honeyx4 said:prefer Bermuda grass to St. Augustine which is popular down here.

If I had my way my entire yard would be cottage garden with vegetable beds.

Totally agree with the second statement, but... The Bermuda will make this about impossible...

Bermuda has stolons several feet down and will be impossible to kill....
terrible invader of flower & vegetable beds!

Only problems I've seen down here (lately) is kyllinga brevifolia, and Soliva... And... People who try to grow turf in the shade...

Bermuda grass is no better because it gets Pythium blight under the same conditions only in the Spring instead of Fall. I seen people change their grass only to over-water-themselves into a bad case of anthracnose. Its not the grass, it's the people over watering and over fertilizing their lawns. Photos of Pythium blight in Bermuda.

Our soils are heavy clay and hold water longer than loam and so fungus is common here.

stone said:
Only problems I've seen down here (lately) is kyllinga brevifolia, and Soliva... And... People who try to grow turf in the shade...

And... The funny thing about kyllinga...

After watching the lady spend hours a day over a period of years on her hands and knees pulling it out of her yard... When she went to the nursery to purchase turf to fill in... I learned where the kyllinga came from...

Yall might want to inspect yer sod... before shelling out the money for it...

Lady was buying the kyllinga!

I wish I cold kill off the bermuda grass with overwatering

stone said:

And... The funny thing about kyllinga...

After watching the lady spend hours a day over a period of years on her hands and knees pulling it out of her yard... When she went to the nursery to purchase turf to fill in... I learned where the kyllinga came from...

Yall might want to inspect yer sod... before shelling out the money for it...

Lady was buying the kyllinga!

One should also peruse the label of lawn seed. Laws were passed in Oregon, I don't know about other states, that require lawn seeds companies to declare the percent of weed seed present in the bag.

False-green kyllinga (Kyllinga gracillima) has become increasingly problematic in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions over the past several years. I have seen it a little in texas but its not a problem. Our problem weed is Dallas Grass, Paspalum dilatatum . The only way to kill it is with a total kill herbicide, and that will leave dead spots on the lawn. The only true way to get rid of it is to pull it.