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Repairing dead spots in buffalo lawn

Question:

Dear Garden Guide,

                                Our back lawn is of a small size, but enough for our medium sized dog and possibly a swing set in a few years!.  With the winter rains and lingering morning fog, the lawn is constantly wet.  Our puppy has actually worn a running track through it where he chases birds daily and the lawn is quite muddy in patches.  How do we restore the lawn to its lucsh green and maintain it in a dog-friendly way?  Currently we think the lawn is buffalo, but I have heard that palmetto is quite a durable lawn would this be an option?   I would be grateful for any advice as currently my husband and I are pretty mush flying blind while our dog digs and runs through our sad-looking lawn!  Cheers Jessica

Answer: 

Hi Jessica,

                  This is a common problem.   I would suggest not replacing the lawn with Palmetto as it is a softer type of buffalo (although faster growing and more shade tolerant) then the old hard buffalo variety.  If your present lawn is not coping then Pametto will not help the situation much.  I would suggest using some Gypsum to start with, to solve some of your drainage problem.  If you have some badly drained areas it is likely that you have clay soil.  Gypsum will break up the clay and allow the mositure to drian through.   You can just throw it on the surface and over time it will breakup the clay bit by bit.  You can basically use as much as you like.  Around 200grams a m2 would be a good start.   If you can improve the drainage then it is likely that the lawn will grow better and faster.  The other thing you can do to fill in the dead areas is to over seed with a seed lawn to fill in the spots.  If you don't mind having a mixed lawn, then using Rye grass lawn seed or Fescue lawn seed.   I would fill in any dips in the lawn with some well drained soil mix first.  Rake some small furrows in the soil mix then sprinkle some lawn seed across the soil mix.   Rake the area again carefully.    Keep the dog off the area for a few weeks if you can.   These types of lawn grow quite quickly so you should see and improvement in a month or so.

Regards  questions@gardenguide.com.au

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