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What Do I Do If My Lawn is Dead?

Written by Chris O'Bryan | Jul 17, 2023 2:52:37 PM

When the weather is hot, we often get questions about how to revive brown grass. Homeowners want to know if there’s a way they can go about reviving their lawn.

First and foremost, it’s important to determine whether the grass has actually died or maybe has just gone into a period of dormancy. There are also other reasons why a lawn can turn brown, so getting to the bottom of what’s going on is important.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to know if you have dying grass and what you should do about it.

Do I Have a Dead Lawn?

It can be really difficult to distinguish between a truly dead lawn and one that has gone into dormancy. Grass can go into dormancy during drought conditions as a defense mechanism. But this can look quite similar to a lawn that has actually died.



There are a couple of things that you can do to try and determine whether your grass has actually died or not.

Is the Grass Firmly Rooted?

One way to determine if you actually have a dead lawn is to try the “tug test.” This merely means giving your grass a tug and seeing if it’s still firmly rooted in the ground. If the grass comes out easily, it’s probably died, at least in that area.

Seek Out Patterns

It also helps to seek out patterns. Has the entire lawn turned brown or is it just a few spots? If it’s the latter, these might actually be dead spots. That could be the result of a pest, disease, or environmental problem. However, if your entire lawn is brown (and is still firmly rooted), it’s probably in dormancy.

Talk to a Lawn Care Pro

This can be complicated to do on your own but when you partner with a lawn care professional, they’ll have your back in figuring out what might have caused your brown lawn in the first place.

Diagnosing what’s going on with your lawn is important so that you can implement the proper solution. If you’re worried about how to revive brown grass, you have to first understand what caused it. 

Reviving a Lawn

If your grass is in dormancy, don’t worry. It will come out of that state when the conditions return to “normal.”

Unfortunately, a truly dead lawn can’t simply be “revived.” 

You will need to utilize a service like power seeding to restore any areas that have died.

One of the reasons why it’s important to know what caused your dead lawn in the first place is that you don’t want that same problem to happen again. If it was caused by a pest or disease problem, you don’t want to grow new grass only to have the same problem occur again.

This is where a lawn care professional can help. They can not only diagnose what might be causing brown spots in your lawn but they can implement the proper solution.

If you truly have a dead lawn, they can also help you grow healthy new grass with a service like power seeding. With power seeding, we are cutting rows into the soil and planting new grass. This is the best method to achieve successful germination. 

Get a Healthy Lawn Back

It can be frustrating to walk outside and see a brown lawn. Whether it’s just a few patches or it seems like your entire lawn has turned brown, you want to get a solution underway quickly. After all, your lawn is important to you and it’s something that you want to be proud to show off.

Fortunately, with a proper diagnosis of what’s going on, you can get your healthy lawn back on track. 

With all of the various lawn problems out there, this process can be daunting. But with the help of a lawn care professional, it doesn’t have to be. If it does turn out that your lawn has truly died, a lawn care professional can also help with restoration efforts using power seeding.

Partner with Limbwalker

At Limbwalker, we’re on your side to help you deal with any lawn problems that you might be experiencing. Lawns can be challenging…but we’re up for it! In fact, there is nothing we enjoy more than helping homeowners solve their lawn problems. 

At the end of the day, it boils down to your happiness. We want you to be able to get outside and enjoy your lawn to the fullest….not be frustrated by brown spots. While these situations are sometimes inevitable, we will do what we can to restore your lawn as quickly as possible.


Are you ready to have a thick and healthy lawn that’s getting everything it needs at your Louisville, KY home? Get in touch with us to get a quote for our lawn care programs, which include three lawn care pricing options, and about adding power seeding to one of those programs.