Lawn Maintenance Help (lawns, landscape, growing, fertilizing)

[00molavi]

We are in inland southern CA, hot and dry weather. We have what seem to be a tall fescue lawn. Last year had a yellow spot, the previous gardner's solution was just to put sod in the area. That and many other reasons, he was fired. Now I am doing the work. We fertilized before this spring. The yellow spot came back. Turns out we were watering too much. So decreased watering and applied fungicide twice and those areas are almost diasppearing. This is a pic of the biggest yellow patch.



The new problem is that there are areas of the lawn that is just turning yellow or rusty. The neighbors' lawn all look better, so obviously I am not doing something properly.





So looking at the pics, do I just need to tatch and fertilize or there is something fundamentaly wrong with the way we are doing stuff?

[Bulldogdad]

Have you asked your neighbors who have nice looking lawns what they are doing and compared notes?

Is this a new home?

Picture one- have you check to see if there is a large rock or concrete under the surface. Is that a patch of overseeding mix?

Pic two- appears to be not enough water. Are your sprinkler heads adjusted correctly and the spray pattern not blocked by grass?

Pic-three appears to be chlorosis which is caused by to much watering and not enough Iron in the soil. Ironite is a good fertilizer for this type of issue. Could also be you are letting the grass get to long before cutting it. Hopefully you cut no more than the top 1/3 of the grass. Once a week during the growing season which in your area is March through Oct-Nov.

What is the watering schedule. In arid climates depending on soil type you might need to be watering everyday. However no one can tell you how to program the intervals and time over the internet. Check with the neighbors that have nice lawns as state above

Again its really difficult to tell what you have going on unless the professional is right there asking you questions and looking at the problem.
It appears you have multiple issues.

Keep at it you'll figure it out. Or hire a licenced landscaper to help you with your issues.

[cl723]

It looks like it needs fertilizer.

[00molavi]

Thanks for the response. We are somewhat new in the neighborhood, 1.5 yrs. Asked from the neighbors that I know, but this is suburban CA, so nobody knows what is really done other than the gardener-I guess even if they know it they claim they don't.

Patch one is the fungus area, 2 months after fungicide and what you see is new grass growing from outside toward in. The other 3 similar areas are almost completely fixed, did not need to seed it.

The problem areas are the one in pics 2 & 3. They are on either side of the driveway, on the same sprinkler valve and sun etc. I don't cut the grass too short, if anything I leave it a tad longer just to be safe.

The sprinklers were somewhat too deep, so I added to their length last year with small extensions, so now they seem to be at the correct height and when I watch they have decent coverage. Given this area is dry/desert, everybody seems to be watering once or twice a day. Our "gardener" thought that the more water the merrier and that is why we got in trouble with the fungus. He was watering once at 9 PM and then early AM. Now I am only watering early AM. The areas that are healthy have pretty decent growth and color.

I know this is difficult to figure on the net, at the meantime we are trying to find someone locally to look at it. I don't want to pay for the mow & blow service, but am fine with couple of times per year for fertilizing and specialized care.

[WRXFlyer]

I'm in SoCal too. I water deeply 3 times a week in the summer/fall in the early morning and fertilize once every 3 months. I have Marathon fescue and cut it to 2.5" weekly.

Do you know how long ago your sprinkler system was installed? You may want to double-check to make sure you are getting even, consistent and overlapping coverage (meaning each sprinkler head's spray should be long enough to reach another sprinkler head). Try putting small cups around your lawn, turn your sprinklers on and see if they are all getting filled at the same rate.