How to revive Buffalo lawn suddenly going brown?

[shovett]

Hello,

My Buffalo lawn has been going great and looking green and lush. Two weeks ago it was green and healthy then it started to go brown. First it was a small patch and then within two weeks it has gotten quite big. What would cause this? The lawn has been looked after and cared for and I am surprised to see this. Photo attached.

Any help would be great.

[EricL]

Hello @shovett 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about your buffalo lawn.

There could be a number of reasons why your lawn is turning brown. I suggest having a quick look at this guide - How to detect lawn problems by @Adam_W. Have you changed your watering habits lately? Have you recently fertilized the lawn? Has anyone around the neighbourhood been using herbicide or weed killer? Do you have pets? If you can provide us with a little bit more information, we can try to diagnose the reason why your lawn is turning brown.   

For the meantime, I suggest checking the soil if it is damp. If it is, odds are the lawn is being over watered, and the roots are unable to breath. I suggest holding off on watering and aerating the soil to allow the water to drain away. Aerating also opens up the soil to allowing the plants to absorb excess water and allows the plants to absorb more minerals.

I also suggest having a look at these discussions - Solved: How to revive Buffalo lawn? by @bax and How to repair brown patches on buffalo lawn by @NateZheng. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[shovett]

Hi Eric

Thank you for the reply. Nothing has changed for the grass. I did use the fertiliser that you use with the hose pipe about 3 moths ago. We don't have any pets. No weed killer as far as I know in our area, but it is a back garden so no one can get to it

It seemed to happen after the very hot spell we had then rain.

I regularly use the shoes with the spikes to aerate the lawn as the ground does get hard.

Its odd as the edges of the brown patch still have long grass that needs cutting, but the dead patch doesn't. It's like something has eaten it!!

Thanks again.

[EricL]

Hello @shovett 

Perhaps you might have grub's underneath, I suggest using a shovel and lifting that section of your damaged lawn and see if there are any grubs feasting on the roots of the lawn. If there is, I suggest using Richgro 2L Hose On Lawn Beetle And Grub Killa. But if there are no grubs, I suggest using Lawn Solutions Australia 2L RTU Lawn Rescue.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[shovett]

Hi Eric. Thanks again for the quick reply. What would the grubs look like? 

Cheers Mark

[EricL]

Hi @shovett 

I've placed an image below to give you an idea what they look like.

Eric

[shovett]

can't miss them! thank you