How to repair brown patches on buffalo lawn?

NateZheng

A new buffalo lawn was installed in July 2023

The lawn appears to be growing very well in August

After applying two bottles of Seasol Lawn & Turf Starter and mowing, some areas of the lawn have turned brown or yellow and died, as shown in the following picture(Today, September 2023).

Some details

I'm not sure if the brown patches on my lawn are caused by fungus or lack of water.

I water once a week for 20 minutes.

The soil on top feels a bit hard, but the soil moisture is at a good level of 50-80% when measured with a soil moisture meter.

As a beginner, I didn't realize that using Nuway topsoil as the base soil for my lawn could be a mistake (This soil appears to be a pale yellow-brown color, rather than the dark black color that is indicative of nutrient-rich soil.). If this is the case?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @NateZheng. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about establishing a new lawn.

Buffalo is relatively dormant over the cooler season, so it's typically not laid then. Now that it is warming up, I expect to see your lawn put on new growth and start to green up. It's not unusual for Buffalo to brown off naturally during winter. I do understand, though, that it was quite green when it was laid, so I suspect something else might be happening here.

I note that in your images, the browned sections predominantly appear to be thinner blades of grass. Perhaps this is a cool season grass that has been oversowed to fill in the Buffalo and is now dying off. I'd only expect this to happen if you've seen some very warm weather in your area.

Some of the browned sections look rather compacted, so you could pick up a lawn aerator and go over the lawn. You can then apply some top-dressing soil. Here's a handy step-by-step guide: How to aerate and top dress your lawn.

I don't believe this issue has anything specifically to do with your choice of topsoil. Lawn soils are typically very sandy and designed for this purpose.

With your soil moisture reading, was that just after watering or a few days after? Ideally, unless you've just watered, moisture levels shouldn't be above 50%; if they are, it's not something the grass would tolerate for long periods.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell