Last Updated on October 24, 2022 by Brian Beck
You see it everyday and you probably have a little of it going on in your lawn. Dead spots around trees and shrubs, what causes it? If it is a coniferous tree it is often blamed for the needles that falls on the grass because they are acidic but with our alkaline soils here that is not a huge factor. The next culprit it more true as trees take more water than grass does and with evergreen trees that don’t go dormant with a lawn that does, the outcome is predictable. The tree is going to win out. I do see an occasional lawn that has wall to wall grass with turf butting right up to the trees but this is rare. Something that is a lot less known as no one ever looks at soil biology is that monocots, meaning grass or turf function better with bacterial dominant soils and trees, especially forests are fungal dominant. The fungal populations in the soil completely consume the nutrients that are close to the surface of the soil killing off the grass combined with all of the other factors. When I found this out I was blown away. This explains a lot. This can be corrected by putting the correct biology into the soil which supports the grass so it doesn’t get body slammed by the trees. Also, watering the landscape during the off months also makes a BIG difference! The more and more we learn the better our customers are better off. Give us a call and we can speak to you about what we can do for you.