What Damages Your Lawn Health? Here Are 11 Potential Culprits

For those who are keen gardeners, having a vibrant, green lawn as the centerpiece is the ultimate aim. Even if you look after it meticulously, getting lawn care just right can sometimes feel like an uphill struggle. A perfect mowing routine, natural fertilizer, and plenty of sunlight should be enough in theory to allow your grass to thrive, but brown patches and waterlogged soil can often appear despite the best of efforts.

Knowing what causes lawn damage is the first step to maintaining a perfect lawn, and prevention is much easier than cure for most of the main culprits. From insect infestation to weedkiller damage, understanding the common threats can help you spot them early and prevent long-term damage. Whether you are getting into lawn care for the first time or are a seasoned gardener, let's take a look at the 11 potential culprits that are damaging your lawn health.

We all know that mowing the lawn is a crucial part of maintaining a neat and tidy garden, but finding time to do so regularly can be a challenge. It can be tempting to think that mowing it as short as possible will give you longer between cuts, but this isn't a good idea if you want your grass to be healthy.

Regularly cutting your lawn too close will have damaging effects on your lawn health in the long run. It will reduce the chance of the grass having deep, stable roots and make it more likely to be affected by other issues on this list, including weeds and a lack of water. Since grass relies on the process of photosynthesis to grow, scalping the lawn will reduce the efficiency, and lead to a less healthy garden.

For best results, you should aim to never remove more than one-third of the length of the grass in one go. This means that you will need to mow the lawn more frequently if you want it to look trim — approximately once a week in summer — but it will have the benefit of increasing the density of the grass, which will also move you in the direction of the perfectly smooth lawn you are aiming for. You can adjust the settings on your lawnmower to ensure you don't cut it too short, so that whenever you manage to make time to cut the lawn, you know that you are helping it, rather than hindering.

In a busy family garden, the lawn can take a pretty serious hit from foot traffic, especially in summer. Kids chasing each other, football matches, and furniture being dragged across the garden can all take their toll on your pristine lawn. As well as making the lawn look unsightly, it can damage the grass, too.

Every time you, or anyone else, walks on your lawn, they are compacting the soil underneath. Heavily compacted soil is not ideal for the growth of your lawn, as it makes it harder for it to get access to water, and harder for any large quantities of water to drain away. Compacted soil will also have less access to oxygen, meaning the roots may not be able to develop as they should. 

The grass itself also becomes damaged the more often people walk over it. It will become thin, and you will begin to see worn patches that will be unsightly. Even if heavy traffic on the lawn is unavoidable, there are still a few measures you can take to reduce the impact. If you are hosting an event where the traffic will be harsher than usual, you can purchase grass mats that will alleviate the pressure slightly and reduce the damage caused. Aerating your lawn can be a big help, allowing oxygen and water to reach deep into the roots of the plant and encourage healthy growth. You can aerate your own lawn using a garden fork to make holes in the soil, and for areas that are particularly bad, reseeding may be a better long-term option.

Every keen gardener knows that weeds are the enemy of a pristine lawn, but maintaining it can be tricky, since weedkiller and herbicides are not great for lawn health, either. If you have left even a few weeds unchecked for a week or so, you will know how quickly they can take over, which then leaves chemical intervention as the only option. Weeds have evolved to be more resilient than grass, which means they compete — and win — for sunlight, water, and essential nutrients. Some weeds have deep taproots that help them to win this battle for water and other nutrients.

The best option for banishing weeds without compromising the health of your lawn is to intervene as quickly as possible, before they begin to take hold. Remove them by hand, being sure to get as much of the root as you can, as otherwise they will simply grow back in bigger numbers. The softer the soil is, the easier it will be to remove the weed in its entirety.

If hand weeding isn't an option, you will need to resort to chemical herbicides. Try to get hold of a selective weedkiller that is labeled as grass safe, and use it in a targeted manner, applying it only to the weeds and not the healthy grass, to prevent it killing the grass, too. Once the offending weeds have died off, resort back to hand weeding to prevent a relapse and keep your lawn looking healthy.

Like all of us, your lawn can get thirsty in summer if it doesn't get regular access to water, and the tops of the grass may start to turn brown. However, too much water can be more damaging than too little, so it is important to get the balance right.

Even if you are in the middle of a drought, you actually don't need to cut the grass as often. Cutting very dry grass can damage it, so you can afford to leave longer between cuts if there has not been much rain. But when you do cut the lawn, leave the grass cuttings behind rather than composting them, as this will encourage water back into the soil.

If you are tempted to water your lawn every day to prevent it from drying out, don't. Overwatering prevents the grass from getting access to the correct amount of oxygen and encourages lawn disease, so stick to one watering a week, early in the morning, to get you through the summer season. Watering during that time means more of the liquid reaches the roots instead of evaporating in the heat, so it will help your lawn grow more effectively.

For your lawn to thrive and look vibrant and healthy, it needs to have the ideal environment, which includes the proper temperature. In the height of summer or depths of winter, grass can struggle to adapt to the extreme temperatures, and this will affect how it looks and how well it grows.

If you have a regular routine for mowing your grass in summer, you may want to pause it if you are experiencing particularly hot weather. Allowing the lawn to grow a little longer than usual means that it can create more shade for the soil below. This can reduce the negative effects of the extreme heat and prevent the soil drying out as quickly. Since the grass will not be growing as fast in the intense heat, you can relax your mowing schedule until the weather has cooled slightly.

At the other extreme, particularly cold winters can have harsh effects on the lawn, especially if it lasts for many weeks. Most chemical reactions slow down at cold temperatures, and the growth of grass is impacted in the same way. The longer temperatures stay below freezing, the bigger impact it will have on the speed of growth, and the grass can become discolored and patchy. If there are large amounts of snow that melts during the thaw, this can also cause the lawn to get water-logged, so ideally snow should be removed from the lawn before it has the chance to melt.

All plants, including grass, need a certain proportion of nutrients to grow properly, and if they don't have access to them, you will see visible signs of poor health. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the primary nutrients that are required, and if your lawn is lacking in one of more of them, you may need to give it some added sustenance.

If you want your lawn to look a vibrant green color and grow well, nitrogen is essential. Chlorophyll, the green pigment that plants need to photosynthesize, depends heavily on nitrogen, so a deficiency can have a huge impact on the overall health of the lawn.  Nitrogen-poor lawns will develop yellow patches and bare areas as the growth of the lawn slows down.

Phosphorus is critical in the growth of strong roots, which will maximize the water uptake of the grass. If you see blades of grass turning purple, it likely needs a phosphorus boost. If lawn disease is a potential issue, then potassium is the key nutrient for preventing it from taking hold. Whichever nutrient your lawn is deficient in, applying specific fertilizers to replenish the missing nutrients and hopefully restoring your lawn to its glory.

If your lawn has been looking a bit funky of late, it's possible it has succumbed to one or more lawn diseases. Most of these are caused by a fungus and can take many different forms, most of which are determined to spoil your beautiful grass.

You may find that lawn fungus is more prevalent in warm weather, with leaf spot being a common summer disease that will cause the grass to become discolored. As the weather gets wetter heading into fall, rust becomes more prevalent, and your grass may turn dark yellow or orange. Once a fungus takes hold, it can be difficult to clear, so prevention should be your first aim if you want to keep your lawn looking pristine.

Keeping your lawn trim is the first step to keeping it fungus free. The longer the grass is, the less air is able to circulate, and there is more chance of creating a damp, dark environment that fungi love. Aerating the soil regularly can also help keep airflow at a maximum, and prevent the lawn becoming waterlogged — a dry lawn is less of an attraction for fungi than a wet one. If you take good care of your lawn with regular mowing and good aeration, the chances of a lawn fungus setting in will be much reduced.

So much in lawn care feels like Goldilocks is in charge — not too little, not too much, it needs to be just right. Sunlight is another element that falls into the same category, and getting it wrong can result in poor lawn health.

Sunlight is one of the fundamental requirements for grass, and all other green plants, to grow. Without sunlight, photosynthesis can't take place, which means the grass cannot create food for itself. If you have large patches of lawn that are in the shade for the majority of the day, the grass will struggle to grow as efficiently as the rest of the lawn and can eventually die. However, before you reach for the chainsaw to chop down the huge trees lining your garden in an attempt to save your lawn, be aware that flooding it in sunlight all day may not be the ideal option either.

Intense sunlight for long periods of the day can scorch your grass, leading to brown patches, lack of moisture in the soil, and brittle blades. There is a common myth that watering plants during bright sunshine will scorch the leaves, however it is true that on very hot days, the water may evaporate before it gets a chance to reach the roots. For this reason, water a lawn that has been in the sun all day during the early evening, to give the water a chance to properly hydrate it. The best environment for grass is to be in dappled shade, but if you can't accommodate that, full sunlight and plenty of water is the best compromise.

You may have a strict mowing routine for your garden, and assume that your lawn will be vibrant and healthy as a result, but if you aren't looking after your mower, you may be inadvertently sabotaging your hard work. Blunt lawnmower blades can cause major issues with your lawn, and knowing how to prevent it will save you the agony of needing to rescue your poor grass after it has been destroyed.

If your hairdresser spent 20 minutes hacking at your hair with a pair of blunt scissors, you wouldn't be too pleased, and attempting to cut your lawn with blunt mower blades is a similar problem. A sharp blade will cut through the grass with ease, and leave a clean cut behind to allow the blades to keep growing. Blunt blades, on the other hand, will tear the grass instead, which will make it look unsightly, and can have further repercussions, too. Ripping the grass in this manner can cause stress, and just like with us, stress is not conducive to a healthy lawn. To prevent long-term issues with your lawn, you should sharpen your blades at least once a year, and consider replacing them if they aren't looking at their best.

If you take a close look at your lawn, you will of course find plenty of minibeasts living there — it is outdoors, after all. While most critters are perfectly harmless, and some such as earthworms and ladybugs are beneficial for your garden, there are a few that could be problematic if you see them in large numbers making themselves at home in the soil.

Chafer grubs are one of the main culprits when it comes to destroying lawns, as they like to chomp on the roots of the grass as a tasty meal. Fully grown beetles tend to lay eggs in the grass in late spring, meaning that the larvae could be helping themselves to your grass roots throughout the summer.

Leatherjackets are another miniscule pest — the larvae of the crane fly. They look like short worms and stay under the soil for most of the day, emerging at night to feast on blades of grass. They can have a similar effect on the lawn as chafer grubs, causing thinning and discoloration if they are left undisturbed. If you believe you have an insect infestation, you should deal with it as soon as possible to have a chance at preventing long-term damage. Store-bought pest control sprays can be effective, especially if applied early, but you may wish to contact a professional service if the insects are already well established.