r/lawns

Looking for lawn care tips!

I raked, seeded, and have been morning-watering my lawn (laid sod last year).

Any suggestions on what else I should be doing?

I'm in St. Louis, MO (zone 7a) and my neighbor recently laid down seed for a new back yard. He used Scott's Drought Tolerant seed mix, which is a mix of tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass (see photo). He scraped off the old grass/weeds and soil, added good quality topsoil, seeded the whole yard & covered it with straw, and watered with a timer. The seed germinated and everything looked great for the first few weeks, but now several patches of the new grass are turning brown and dying, and we can't figure out why.

The strange thing is, the dying patches are right in the middle of areas that look great. (see photos) The yard is part sun/part shade and he's been watering it religiously (but not overwatering), and we can't figure out why it's starting to die in random spots. I suspected grubs, but we checked and didn't see any. We did get a few days of rain about a week ago, but I wouldn't think that would be the cause because most of the yard looks great.

Can anyone help us figure out why this might be happening, and what the possible fix might be? TIA.

Sub-contractor left a 3-foot wide hole in my lawn filled with sand. Called parent contractor to ask that this be remedied. Sub-contractor returned today cursing and grumping about "wasting sod on a shit lawn" in my security camera feeds. They're not all wrong - wife allows a "natural" lawn for the first few weeks of spring for the bugs, but even her mishmash of vegetation looked awful with a sand-filled hole in the middle.

Anyway, is it usual to plop a tiny sod piece in the middle of a pile of dirt and sprinkle grass seed around it? Cuz back in my landscaping youth, albeit some time ago, we just cut out lawn wedges to match our sod wedges and literally never did anything but place sod edge-to-edge with living grass.

Am I crazy, or is this some master class malicious compliance?

EDIT FOR CONTEXT (From comment reply)
This is the culmination of three attempts to get them to return to an abandoned job site on my property, undertaken without my consent (public utility) that was promised to be "remediated to the original condition".

I'm laughing as I take the L. I told them to congratulate the sub-contractor on their successful demonstration of malicious compliance and I consider it closed. They win! I just didn't want a giant hole in my lawn whose function I didn't understand.

I don't care about the lawn (obviously!).

Trying to I.D. This grass thanks!

I’ve taken quite a few pictures of random weeds/plants growing in my grass and a couple on my fence. If any of you savants are able to identify these and the answer to getting rid of them, preferably without destroying what little grass I do have mixed in, I’d be very appreciative. I am all for whatever products you can recommend.

Imgur link to the album:

https://imgur.com/a/w1jQTDN

I’ve been bagging my clippings in my mows so far. I am in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Also, bonus points if you have a recommendation for a battery back pack sprayer. My yard is about 1/4 acre total.

We bought this new build home last August and I didn’t do much with the lawn.

The builder put sod in the front and natural grass in the back.

I have sprinklers in the front but none in the back.

I recently mowed it short, dethatched, scarified, put down fertilizer and laid down some Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue.

I need to do a soil test, but fear I’m doing this all wrong.

Any advice?