If you are a homeowner, you have undoubtedly struggled with lawn maintenance and upkeep at some point in your life. A healthy full well kept lawn is one of the first things people see when they first view a home. While it may only seem to be aesthetic, a healthy lawn says a lot about the people who dwell inside.

Most importantly though, it says the owners care about their home. There are many signs that a lawn is unhealthy including dead patches of grass that are caused by a fungal disease, dog urine, and drought. In order to keep a lawn looking healthy, the homeowner must ensure their lawn is free from these common causes of dead patches.

One common cause of dead patches in lawns is the growth of moss over the more wet winter months. Moss grows underneath the surface of the lawn and slowly begins to suffocate the more desirable grass. Since it is difficult to see moss in the beginning stages of growth, it is often missed until it is too late and already taking over the health of the lawn. Moss needs to be treated yearly to keep it in check.

Another common cause of dead patches on a lawn comes from the homeowner’s best friends, their dogs. While it is a common misconception that female dog urine is the culprit to dead grass, both male and female dogs can have a negative effect on the health of the lawn.

Female dogs tend to unload all their urine in one spot which concentrates the nitrogen in their urine and tends to cause a dead patch of grass. Male dogs tend to move around while they urinate spreading the nitrogen around more, which is why they do not receive the same bad reputation for lawn killing as their female counterparts. Urine can be washed away daily to prevent these dead patches.

Finally, while there are other causes of dead patches in lawns, one of the more obvious culprits is the lack of water supply to the grass. In the winter months, the lawn typically stays green while not growing in length due to the ample supply of water and the lack of sunlight needed for growth.

Once the summer months begin, the water supply drops, and the sunlight increases creating grass that starves and begins to die. Depending on where water is able to concentrate on the lawn, dead patches may begin to form until proper watering is reintroduced.

It is important for homeowners to project an appearance of caring for their homes and one of the easiest ways to do this is to maintain proper care of the lawn. Watching for these three culprits of dead patches in their lawns are a good place to start.