12 Reasons Why Your Grass Is Not Growing Evenly


Why Is My Grass Not Growing Evenly?
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Keeping your grass healthy is not an easy task. You have to worry about watering it, making sure it gets enough sun, and making sure it doesn’t get eaten up by bugs, among other things. To top it all off, sometimes it doesn’t grow evenly, and you have no idea why. 

Luckily for you, we’re just as obsessed about finding out why your grass isn’t growing evenly, so we’ve done the work for you.

1. You’ve Got Varying Types of Grass Growing

Unless you’re well-versed in the world of grass, you may not know that there’s more than one type of grass. This could very easily explain why your grass is growing in different sizes, however. Some types of grass thrive in cold climates, while others grow better in warmer weather. But if you’ve got both types, it would make sense that your grass is growing unevenly. 

2. Your Fertilizer Isn’t Being Spread Evenly

Fertilizer is essentially plant food, so of course, if you’re adding more to one section of your grass than you are another, your grass will be growing in all types of direction. If you want to make sure your fertilizer is being spread evenly, you could consider calling a professional lawn service.

But if you’re more of a DIY kind of person, you would benefit from purchasing a spreader. 

I recommend this Scotts broadcast spreader (link to Amazon).

3. There’s Not Enough Aeration in Your Lawn

Although your soil might look nice, it doesn’t mean it’s doing its job. The idea is that you’re getting as much oxygen and water into your grass as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes your soil can get clogged up and neither of these things get to your plant successfully. 

The best way to see if poor aeration in your soil is what is repressing your lawn growth is to dig up the parts of your lawn that aren’t growing well. From there, you can continue to water those areas and if grass starts to grow again, then you know that aeration is your problem.

4. Disease Has Taken Over Your Lawn

Just like with any plant, mold and fungus tends to grow on grass. They can be passed on through bugs, excessive rain, or other plants. If a part of your lawn gets infected by mold, it can certainly suppress its growth.

Another sign that your lawn may have been infected with mold is if your lawn turns a different color. Mold tends to be obvious in grass due to the fact that it changes its color. So if you happen to see a patch of lawn growing white, yellow, red, or any other abnormal color, it’s safe to say that fungus is present.

5. Your Pets Are Unknowingly at Fault

As a pet owner, one of your priorities is making sure your animal doesn’t pee or poop inside of your house. As a result, you train it to use the bathroom outside. But what you may not be aware of, is the fact that animals are creatures of habit and once they find a spot they like, they will pee or poop in it for as long as they can.

While this may be good for you (and your carpet) it is fatal to your grass. Excessive dog feces or urine can kill your grass off quicker than you know. The good news is that this is something that can be fixed.

You can either train your pet to use the bathroom elsewhere, or you can purchase a urine neutralizing spray that would be helpful to your grass.

These burn spot chews for dogs (link to Amazon) can save you on treatment caused by dog urine.

6. Different Soil Types Can Change Your Grass

Grass can be very sensitive, which means it won’t always grow in just any type of soil. Not to mention that different types of grass require different types of soil. So, if you’ve got patches of yard that may have clay in them, it can certainly stunt the growth of your grass.

If clay seems to be the issue, you can try to aerate it as much as possible to get the grass seed to grow. However, this isn’t guaranteed to work. 

The alternative is to purchase new top soil and plant your yard from scratch.

7. You’re Watering Too Much

It’s commonly known that plants need one of two things to survive: sunlight and water. But, too much of either of these things is not ideal. If you’re watering your lawn too much, you could be doing more harm than good. So you may be left wondering, why is my grass not growing evenly?

You may not know it right away, but you could be drowning your grass with all that over watering. Unfortunately, by the time you figure it out, it may be too late.

If this is the case, there’s not much you can do but stop watering it.

A good thing to keep in mind is that if your grass needs watering, it won’t spring back right after you step on it. If your grass is curled or starts to change color, however, it needs more water.

You can avoid overwatering by setting a timer on your sprinkler and adjusting it depending on the weather.

8. Too Much Shade

While shady trees may be a welcome oasis for you on a hot summer day, they are the opposite for your grass. Your lawn needs sunlight, so if there are patches of lawn that aren’t getting enough sunlight due to too much shade, it may be time to clean up your tree’s branches.

This is not to say that you need to cut down all of the trees in your yard. However, too much shade in one area of your lawn may stunt the growth of your grass. As a result, your grass will start to grow unevenly. The best thing you can do is clear out as many branches as possible without hurting the tree, to manage how much shade your lawn gets.

Make sure all areas of your lawn are getting enough sunlight, otherwise you’ll end up with random patches of lawn that aren’t growing evenly.

9. Improper Mowing

Believe it or not, your lawn mower may be the reason your grass is growing unevenly. You should make sure that you’re changing the direction of the way you mow your lawn every time you do it. 

Another reason could be that your axle bushes are worn. This means that your lawn mower may be cutting your grass unevenly. If this is the case, your lawn will typically look choppy and uneven right after you’ve mowed it.

10. The pH in Your Grass Is Off

Another reason why your grass is growing unevenly could have something to do with the pH level in your soil. This could be because the PH in the soil could be too high in certain areas and restrict the growth of new grass seed. 

The pH of your lawn could be affected by the fertilizer you use, animal urine, or even walking over a particular patch of grass too often.

You can test the pH of your soil using a soil pH meter like this one.

11. Too Many Seeds in One Place

If you’ve recently seeded your own lawn and are starting to see new sprouts growing in, you may be wondering why some are growing faster or more abundant than others. This could be because you seeded one area of your lawn too much. Overseeding is extremely common and while it can be useful during times of drought, if you aren’t overseeding evenly, your lawn is bound to grow unevenly. 

Many people seed their lawns by just tossing them out in random places. If this has been your method of seeding, it’s no wonder your lawn is a mess. Seeding should be precise and careful, otherwise you risk having a jungle on one side of your lawn, and a patchy yard on the other.

12. Uneven Ground

If you’re starting to feel down about yourself, don’t worry, you’re not always to blame. Sometimes it simply has to do with the cards (or the yard) that you’re dealt with. You may have an uneven ground you’re dealing with, and you don’t know it. This is one of the most common reasons why people’s lawns grow unevenly.

Before you try to seed your own lawn, make sure you don’t have any uneven ground you’re dealing with. If you have a slope, chances are your seeds are rolling down the hill whenever it rains or you water it. To avoid this, make sure you’re packing your grass seed in tightly so as to keep this from happening.

In Summary

At the end of the day, there are many reasons why your lawn may be growing unevenly. It could be due to uneven ground, over-fertilizing, overwatering, not enough sunlight, and more.

If you are unsure which of these it could be, you can always perform experiments in your lawn to try and find out. If worse comes to worse, you can always hire a professional company to come out and take a look.

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