If your lawn isn't looking so great, it can be easy to think that it is dead. However, that is often not the case, it may just be dormant. Before you rush to the conclusion that your lawn is dead, it's a good idea to check for a few things to make sure that it's not just dormant.

There are three good ways to check if your grass is dormant or dead: tugging on it to see if it’s still firmly anchored in the soil, checking to see if there are patchy brown spots on your lawn or if the whole lawn is brown, and watering your grass more consistently to see if turns green or not.

The Tug Test

Head over to some of the brown grass on your lawn, grab a handful of it firmly and then try to pull it out. If it gives you some resistance when you pull on it, then it’s likely just dormant. However, if the grass easily comes out of the soil without any resistance when you tug on it, then it’s probably dead. If your grass comes up easily, it is likely because the root system has degraded and withered away, which is why there will be no resistance when you pull on it. Be sure that you pull on the grass from the base to ensure that it doesn’t end up breaking partway up the blades.

Does your lawn have brown patches or is it completely brown?

Brown lawn grass across a yard in Fishers, IN.

Nobody likes seeing their lawn turn brown, and you may assume that the problem is more serious when your entire lawn is uniformly brown, but that’s actually an indicator that your grass is dormant. Grass tends to go into dormancy when soil temperatures are consistently below 45 degrees.

On the other hand, if your grass is going brown in patches, then you may be right to assume that it’s dying. Brown patches mean that those spots are dead and the problem is in the process of spreading.

Watering Your Lawn Can Tell You More About it Than You Think

Grass can go dormant in more than just cold conditions, especially the kind of grass we have in Indiana since we have cool-season grass. This means that it can struggle to stay alive during the hot summers that we experience in this area and it may go into dormancy to save itself. To see if your grass is dead or just dormant, make sure that your lawn is on a consistent watering schedule. If your lawn is just dormant, it will start to turn green again with consistent watering, if it is dead, it will not.

Lawns in Indiana should receive around 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water every week during the growing season.

Come to Us for All of Your Lawn Care Needs!

If you're wondering if your lawn is just dead or dormant, we can help you figure out the answer. At Precision Cutz Lawn Care, we specialize in a variety of lawn care services and will be able to help you determine what's going on with your lawn. If your lawn is dead or dying we can help you out! We offer services such as fertilization, aeration, and overseeding that will help your lawn grow strong and full. If your lawn is completely dead and you need to start over you can take advantage of our new lawn seeding service.

We are proud to offer our services to residential, commercial, and HOA properties in Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, and throughout the surrounding areas in Indiana. Give us a call today at 317-965-7868 to schedule a consultation.