NJ Lawns Community

Hey everyone, just bought my first house in Ridgewood back in March and I'm really struggling with my lawn. It's supposed to be Kentucky Bluegrass but I'm seeing these dead brown patches showing up even though I run my sprinkler system every morning for about 20 minutes.What am I missing here? My sprinklers are definitely coming on and I can see water hitting those areas but they still turn brown. Is KBG just really hard to maintain or am I doing something obviously wrong? Any help from the experienced Bergen County lawn folks would be awesome. My next door neighbor has a perfectly green lawn and I don't know if he's doing something special.

Welcome to homeownership in Bergen County! Sounds like you're dealing with a classic irrigation issue even if it doesn't seem like it.Let me ask - how long have you been running that 20 minute schedule? And are you checking if water is actually PENETRATING the soil? A lot of people see standing water and assume it's soaking in but with clay soil around here (which most of Ridgewood has), you can get runoff pretty fast. 20 minutes on clay can easily be 15 minutes of runoff.If you haven't already, try the screwdriver test - push a screwdriver into the grass after watering. If it goes in easy, you're good. If not, you need to break up watering into shorter cycles. Also, watering in the morning is right but maybe bump it to early morning (5-6am) to reduce evaporation.

Thanks for the quick reply! I should clarify - I've been running the sprinklers basically since I moved in, so about 3 months now. I've noticed the water does seem to sit on top a bit actually now that you mention it.My yard is pretty small, maybe 40x50 feet in the back. I don't know if my sprinkler coverage is even - come to think of it I never tested it uniformly. Might be some spots getting more than others?Also, is aeration something I should look into? My father in law mentioned it but he's in Florida so wasn't sure if that applies here. I just assumed I'd water more to fix the dry patches but now wonder if I'm making it worse.

Aeration is EXACTLY what you need for clay soil honestly, especially if you're seeing water sit on top. I'd recommend getting it done now (late May into June is perfect timing BEFORE our hot July hits). You can rent an aerator from the Home Depot in Paramus or even call somebody local - there's a guy in Saddle River that does it reasonable.The real issue though might be your sprinkler heads. Do you know what kind you have? If they're old rotor ones they might be putting out less water than you think. Grab some empty tuna cans or rain gauges and do a catch can test - run sprinklers for 15 minutes and measure what's actually hitting different spots. You'd be surprised how many heads are clogged or misaligned.The other thing - KBG has shallow roots compared to tall fescue which is why we see a lot of fescue lawns around here now. Might be worth reseeding with a mix. Not sure if your lawn was new seed or existing but if it's older KBG it could be declining.

I literally just took your advice and did the screwdriver test - barely could push it in an inch. Wow, so the water ISN'T soaking. That explains so much.I'm going to try the catch can test this weekend and see where my coverage is. Didn't even know that was a thing! Also gonna look into aeration - appreciate the local references, saves me hunting around.So if I'm understanding right - I might have drainage issues AND possibly uneven coverage? No wonder my lawn looks patchy. This is way more complex than I thought but at least now I feel like I'm looking in the right direction.Also weird - you mentioned fescue is better for this area? I had no idea. My lawn is original sod from probably the 90s based on what the previous owner said. Makes sense it'd be tired KBG by now. Anyway, thanks for walking me through this!