Now, this little tip may be old news to you pro-gardeners out there, so I’ll share it for those of you who are like me and have a mostly black thumb.
Our lawn and shrubs were in terrible shape when we bought our house 4 years ago. We have been working on making new beds and thickening up our lawn a little bit each year. Last year we ended up having to lay sod in half of our backyard because the little bit of bermuda grass that was left wasn’t growing in our shaded corner. Our St. Augustine sod has done pretty well this growing season, but the rest of our Bermuda yard was pretty full off weeds. My husband did an excellent job killing the weeds earlier this spring, but we were left with giant bare spots in our lawn where the weeds had taken up residence.
Now, these pictures were taken today, after I’ve been working on these spots for about a month. After learning this simple tip from my gardening-pro Mom, this bare spot is about half the size of what it was this spring, and many other smaller spots are gone all together!
What is the simple tip? Just water your bare spots with your spray hose every other day.
It seems a little counterintuitive . . . like my 7 year old observed when he asked, “Why are we just watering the dirt?” It really works though! The idea is that your healthy grass will send out runners to get to the nearby water and fill in the bare spots.
See the little runners? These will eventually root and start growing in those empty spaces.
Here’s another picture of an area where our St. Augustine and Bermuda meet, and you can see both types of grass running to the water.
It takes about 7-10 days before you may start to see a difference, but over time, the spots will fill in with new grass and your holes will be gone. No seed and no fertilizer needed.
We’re all enjoying our fuller lawn, now I have to work on the front yard!
Jennifer C
Wednesday 30th of July 2014
Wow! I have got to try this. Hope this works on the bare spots in my yard.
Keitha The Bajan Texan
Monday 28th of July 2014
wow who knew! thanks for the tip!
Nancherrow
Friday 25th of July 2014
Great tip! I would never have know this. Pinning to the Fridays Unfolded link board-thanks for sharing!
Alison Nancherrow
Melanie
Friday 25th of July 2014
Thanks Alison! I'm glad you found it helpful! I wasn't sure if it was an obvious thing everybody knew about it, or if it would be helpful information to pass on. Maybe others will find it helpful too :)