How to Repair Bare Spots in Your Lawn

Bare spots on your lawn or patches on grass can be the result of heavy foot traffic (causing soil compaction), drought, disease, chemical burn and weed or insect infestation. Before beginning repairs, you need to determine the source of your problem. This will help you prevent it from continuing.

If heavy foot traffic is the cause, look for a way to keep traffic off of that area. This may include installing stepping stones, a gravel pathway or a barrier that would reroute traffic and protect that area of your lawn.

You might suspect that either insects or disease are leading to bare places on your lawn. If so, determine the specific cause. Most treatments will need to be applied and allowed to work before you can grow new grass. The treatment product instructions will tell you how long to wait before beginning to repair grass patches.

Once you have addressed the cause of the bare spots, it’s time to repair the damage. In most areas, the best solution to repair lawn spots is to plant new grass. There are several options:

• Apply grass seed and fertilizer separately. Spread straw as a mulch after planting the grass seed to help keep it moist and safe from birds.
• Lawn patch products combine grass seed, fertilizer and mulch blends in one bag to easily repair grass patches.
• Seed germination blankets made from wood fiber keep seeds and soil in place for erosion control.
• Sod is an option if it is available. Since it is alive, keep it moist until you're able to install it. Make sure the sod makes good contact with the prepared soil bed.

Once you have made the repairs, follow these steps. While you may not be able to prevent bare spots completely, you can keep your lawn as healthy and green as possible.

No, most grass will not fill in bare spots on its own. While a few types of grass will spread via their underground root systems, most patches on grass need to be seeded. Before you begin, make sure you properly prepare the bare spots to give the seeds the best chance to germinate and spread.

Throwing grass seed onto bare spots will result in little-to-no germination and will not help to repair lawn spots. If you want to fix patches on grass, you need to properly prepare the bare spots before laying down the seed.

Your grass may have bald spots due to any number of factors, including foot traffic, poor soil, grubs, pet urine, fungus or rocks, to name a few. Before you can begin to correct patches on grass, you'll need to determine what's causing the bald spots. Once you've remedied the problem, you can begin to repair grass patches.

The timing of seeding your lawn with bare spots depends on the type of grass you have. In northern zones, cool-season grasses grow best in late summer and fall, which is when you should repair patches on grass. In southern zones where warm-season grasses are most common, it's best to add seed in late spring or early summer.