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When Grass Won’t Grow

Episode #5
Release Date: April 08, 2024

Having trouble with your lawn? Learn about possible causes for lawn decline, proper cultural practices, along with groundcover alternatives to help when your grass won't grow.

Episode Transcript:

ANNE
What do you do when grass won't grow? There are many situations where either grass was previously growing and it declines and dies. It can be hard to figure out what to do when you lose spots of your lawn, either quickly or grass declines over a longer period of time, and it's important to figure out why the grass is not growing before you decide to just rush out and replace it with the same thing.

And so we need to figure out what those things might be. So let's find out on today's episode.

JULIE
Welcome to Your Central Florida Yard, the podcast series where we explore how to successfully garden in the unique climate of Central Florida. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you. So grab your shovel and get ready to dig in. This podcast is brought to you by UF/IFAS Extension, Polk County.

ANNE
So I have a pretty big area in my yard where over time it's gotten shadier. Grass kind of started to decline. A lot of tree roots growing. I actually consider replacing it with sod and ultimately decided not to. It was pretty expensive. It was an area of the yard that we never used. So last month I decided to just mulch the entire thing and then kind of build a larger shrub border off the fence that was back there.

So that's something that I've decided to do in an area where grass won't grow. And then over time as well, as trees have grown in my yard or areas have just started to decline, I've kind of pulled those spots into existing mulched beds that were already there. I didn't really have to create a bunch of new mulched beds.

And I've actually noticed, you know, driving through the neighborhood or in other areas where people have kind of done the same thing. Just kind of taking those areas where they start not to look very good or those trees have started to get bigger and people are just kind of naturally creating larger mulched areas. Some are just letting oak leaves fall and leaving them like that or just starting to slowly install plants. And I don't think it's an area that you need to hurry up and put plants in right away either, or you can kind of just mulch it and see how it goes.

JULIE
Yeah Anne, I think that's a critical point, is that when our lawns decline, it's important to figure out why. But also what are our options when those lawns aren't thriving as we once expected?

ANNE
Yeah. So today the things that we're going to talk about are why that grass stops growing or just starts to decline. I think maybe some people go out and they think, oh my gosh, all of a sudden the grass is dead. But maybe it has been over a longer period of time. But certainly things can happen to where it is very sudden.

And we'll mention those. And then instead of just continually replacing sod, particularly if it's an area where you've seen repeated death of that lawn area, maybe looking at something else, and we're going to discuss some of those things. And then the options for turf grass alternatives, or what you might be able to do if you're looking for something other than continual sod replacement.

JULIE
So Anne, it sounds like one of the key issues is before we replace the sod, it's really important to figure out why the grass is no longer growing. So what's one reason why our grass may no longer be growing?

ANNE
All right, so before we just replace a lawn area with sod, we want to figure out why that grass isn't growing. And one of the things that it could be is just general wear and tear. That's a common way for lawns to decline. And maybe that could be just like a repeated use. If you have dogs, you know, running a fence or kids that tend to play in a certain area, you know, even cutting through a yard as a pathway could cause issues and a nice lawn to decline.

So repeated use potential soil compaction could cause declines of really nice looking lawns. And so we want to make sure if we want to resod, that, that's not going to happen again. And so we might want to look to something else, a different type of turf grass, a different type of plant. So if you're going to leave your dogs out in your yard like you did before, which is obviously what a lot of people will do, what could you use instead?  And if they're looking at a different type of of grass species, what might they need to know about that wear tolerance, Julie.

JULIE
I think it's important before you pick out a new lawn species or the repeated one that you're aware of, what are the wear tolerances each of these turf grass species that we use in Central Florida has different ratings for wear tolerance, and so those that have the least adaptable or have poor wear tolerance are going to be Saint Augustine and bahiagrass.

However, zoysiagrass and bermudagrass kind of a good to excellent rating on that. And so it's important to know is this wear a temporary thing? Was it, you know, maybe a one time activity that's over or is this going to be something repeated? And is that lawn you know, the best option for you? I can think of one example, Anne, actually of wear tolerance. And so while bahiagrass doesn't have good wear tolerance we have that on several parts of the property here at the extension office. And so when the youth fair is held here, there are a lot of people, a lot of animals on property. And we actually do get a bit of wear on the large lawn areas that have bahia.

And so for a while that lawn is definitely kind of worn away. But after a few months, you know, once spring comes and the rainy season, that grass actually recovers and grows back. So I think it's important to know, is this a one time thing? Is it a seasonal thing? And what kind of tolerance are you willing to deal with and how your lawn looks as well?

I think another important thing when we think of wear tolerance is mowing at the proper height. With a lawn mower, that's also important if you're just trying to quickly cut an area of lawn with a weed trimmer, you can actually scalp the lawn. That can also happen if you don't adjust the height of your mower as well. If you're cutting it too low for that species and every turf grass species has a recommended mowing height to keep it healthy. So, you know, those are stresses that can also kind of lead to a type of wear on the lawn. And I think with that thinking about mowing, it's important that your mower blades are actually kept sharp. And so that's going to keep your lawn healthy and also avoid some disease issues that could happen from blades that aren't sharp when you're mowing.

ANNE
And Julie, it's important to remember too, if a person wants to change out their type of grass, maybe they had Saint Augustine grass and they want to switch to zoysiagrass. Those mowing heights are really different, and if you mow your lawn, you know that you would have to look that up and reset your mower height.

But if you have someone come in and mow your lawn for you, it is important that they change their blade height as well. And so double checking with your management company to say, hey, you know, I had Saint Augustine and put in zoysia or vice versa so that they can change those mowing heights is really important. And you know, asking the person that mows your lawn, are you sharpening the blades? Are you cleaning the blades? Those things are really important as they go from lawn to lawn to lawn, if those things need to happen. 

Okay, another thing that could be an issue for declining lawns. This is happening in my yard for sure, but over time, trees are growing. Obviously that's a good thing and their canopies are expanding. So areas that were previously sunny or even partially sunny get more and more shady over time.

And so this could be a situation where you see kind of a gradual thinning out, declining areas in the lawn just because you know that that shade is increasing. And so most long grasses don't do really well in the shade. And over time you notice that kind of sparse type of look. And that's definitely what I saw happening and can continue to see in different areas in my yard as well.

So maybe think of something different to do with the landscape at that point, maybe replacing with large mulch beds, shade loving plants, anything like that. And so some grass species do have some shade tolerance and might do okay, but maybe Julie, could you talk a little bit about what those might be?

JULIE
If we have large shade trees with deep shade, most turf grass species, if any, are not going to thrive in those conditions. And so remember, most plants that require full sun, especially our turf grass species that grow in Florida, need at least six hours of sunlight. So keep that in mind when you're starting to see, you know, the grass decline in those areas that might be the reason. 

And so to your point, the shade tolerance of different grass species, most of them are not good. But those that tolerate a little more shade than others would be some Saint Augustine cultivars and some zoysia cultivars. Bahiagrass and bermudagrass have very poor shade tolerance. They're not going to grow in shade, but there are some cultivars of Saint Augustine and zoysia that can tolerate a little bit lower light.

But remember, even those need around five hours of sunlight. And I think also thinking back to the point, you know, that these trees are growing. So you might be thinking, well, maybe I can prune these trees in a way that it lets a little more light in. We definitely would not recommend that. Any type of pruning on a tree that that was shading, and then you prune it to the point that it allows enough light for that turf grass to grow was probably not healthy for that tree.

So Anne, your point of creating those larger mulched beds or and utilizing shade loving plants is a better option than trying to prune that tree to allow that turf grass to grow. And that goes back to the Florida-Friendly landscaping principle of right plant, right place. You know, is that turfgrass the right plant in those light conditions?

ANNE
Really everything goes back to right plant, right place. If we're deciding to replace in any area of our yard, you know, we can go through these things and check out wear and tear and shade and all of those things. But ultimately it could be a mix or soil type or whatever, and we just need to switch to something else.

So I mean, there is a little bit of a checklist to kind of go through. And I will mention to that with the pruning of the trees, I think sometimes people do have contractors or other people suggest to them that they might want to thin out trees to increase lawn growth. And so just really be mindful of that.  If the tree trimmers suggest that, that maybe you want to look to a different tree trimmer and just, you know, know that you know, that's not a good practice to get into if you want to keep those nice healthy trees growing. 

And there's so many things you can do in those shady areas, even just a big mulch bed with no plants for quite some time looks really nice. And you know you can decide on plants that go in them even later. I mean, that's kind of what I'm doing. And you know, I don't want to lose any, any tree quality for sure. 

Another thing that might cause issues with the lawn areas would be not enough water. You know, could be you're noticing small patches of the lawn die and it might be frequent. I think sometimes we kind of notice those a lot more in, you know, April and May when it's really dry out. You see very obvious dry patches. But sometimes then you kind of forget what those are as we go through the other seasons where it's raining a lot more, the grass is dormant. And so one thing that I would suggest people to do is just check their sprinkler coverage and make sure that the sprinklers are covering the entire area of the lawn that they're supposed to irrigate.

And so how do you check this? And it's actually called a sprinkler system calibration. So measuring your sprinkler system output and it if you know, is done to know how long to run your sprinklers. But I always tell people, you know, if it looks like there's a dry spot in your lawn or something's going on, just stick an extra can out there.

And if the cans are empty after your system is running for that 15 minute check, you'll know that the lawns, the lawn in those places is not getting properly irrigated, and you may need to then just go ahead and make some adjustments to the sprinkler system. Maybe just a couple of heads to get that head to head coverage.

And so what head to head coverage is, is when one sprinkler spray pattern hits another head, so that full coverage over the entire area that it's irrigating. So you can go through and check those. If that's something that you want to do that could be costly. It might not kind of depends on what's going on. It will require a little bit of work.

So if it's not even something that you want to do at all. You know, I'm not interested in in doing anything with my sprinkler system. You can maybe just kind of incorporate those areas, those dry spots, those problem areas into an existing mulched bed, or take the time to create a nice new mulch bed or island out in your lawn. And that could be a pretty easy fix. And then select plants that maybe don't require supplemental irrigation for those those spots. And there's plenty of plants to choose from for that.

JULIE
One of those key points you made is checking your irrigation system. That's important for the health of your plants and to make sure you're using water most efficiently. So regularly checking, especially if you're starting to notice an issue. Get out there. And like you mentioned, that sprinkler calibration test is something you can easily do yourself. You can run your system, you know, each zone for ten minutes and at least find out, am I getting coverage in this area?

ANNE
Yeah. And we do have instructions on how to do a sprinkler system calibration or measure your sprinkler system. You can contact your extension office and get some really simple, guidance on how to do that. So it's nothing that's too difficult.

JULIE
So I think, Anne, the opposite issue that we encounter more often than not from underwatering is too much water in the landscape or on the lawn.

ANNE
Yeah and overwatering can really easily harm plants, often killing them for sure. Could it be that your grass is declining because of too much water? And that certainly could be indicated by thatch, excess buildup in the Saint Augustine grass. And so how do you know what that looks like? The grass kind of feels spongy or bouncy when you walk on it. That might be an indicator of too much water.

And then also certain weeds can be really indicative of of overwatering. So things like dollarweed, different sedges, doveweed and goose grass. If you start to see some of those weeds pop up, it's really an easy way to tell this is this is too much water. And so what might you want to do?

Well, first, obviously check your sprinkler system and make sure that the timer's correct. There's no leaks or or issues going on, you know, making sure that you're running it the right amount on the right day of the week, if it even needs that, that water at all. And if it's just, you know, a simple area that has more drainage or just seems to get really wet even from just regular rainfall, you might want to consider putting in a rain garden.

JULIE
So yeah Anne, a rain garden is actually a low area. Some people might refer to it as a swale that you direct stormwater from the roof runoff to during rain events, and so that roof runoff is directed into that swale or that rain garden, that low depressed area where that water can then filter quickly and then dry out.

And so with rain gardens, they re beautiful, you know, landscaped gardens, often we don't notice that it's a rain garden unless we are aware of rain gardens and kind of notice that depressed area. But it has beautiful plants that tolerate dry periods but then also tolerate that influx of water. The rain garden, the water drains quickly and so usually within 24 to 48 hours, that rainwater is drained and filtered through the soil on site to avoid that runoff.

Lots of cities around Polk County have started incorporating rain gardens into their just public planting areas. I think Winter Haven is a good example. They have lots of rain gardens in the downtown area that you probably wouldn't know that's a rain garden. It just looks like a nicely planted area, but it's actually functioning to reduce that storm water during the rainy season.

And then also in Auburndale along PK Avenue, they actually have a nice planting that functions as a rain garden as well for the stormwater to kind of run into.

ANNE
Yeah and you can get a lot of really good ideas just kind of looking around on the internet or driving around to some of our cities and seeing some examples of plants that are used there. Again, it's just going to kind of look like a regular landscape, but some of the plant selection might be a little bit different. They're just really beautiful additions to a landscape that otherwise that area might just be a problem. And so it's a really nice way to add some curb appeal to.

Another issue for lawn decline could be pests, and pests can take over the yard if the grass is already in decline because of poor maintenance. So proper cultural practices, which is proper maintenance of your lawn, will really reduce any type of pest.

And we're going to kind of talk more about those proper maintenance practices in a little bit. But that's kind of the overarching theme for anything. So we just talked about watering. So proper watering we're not going to have under or overwatering if we're properly watering. So we wouldn't have those issues of decline and loss of the grass, right?  And so when it comes to pests, pest issues could include insects, disease and weeds.

JULIE
Yeah and so a few insects that you might find in your lawn include chinch bugs, white grubs, sod webworm, fall armyworms, and even mole crickets. The good news is that with all of these, they can be easily identified, especially if you have a lawn maintenance professional, someone taking care of your lawn. You know, if they're noticing this, they can easily show you, hey, we found chinch bugs. That's what's causing the decline in your lawn.

Even, to test for insects, you can do what's called a flotation method. And so you can use a container that has both ends open, push it down about three inches in the soil, and then fill the container with water for a few minutes. And so if there are any insects present, they'll actually float to the top during that time.

But the key is to know if you're seeing these patches, what is the root cause. And so while insects can be one issue, there are some other causes.

ANNE
Also, Julie, I wanted to mention when you're doing that flotation method, to kind of do the test in that in-between area of the lawn where it's totally dead and declining slash still alive, because that's where you'll find those insects most active. If you're fully putting that can in the dead spot, there might not be any insects there anymore. So move it over to where they could currently be feeding, and then you might be able to see more insects when you do the the flotation. 

And then the water comes up and you see those insects in there and they could be really, really tiny. But if that's what's causing the problem, you should be able to see them. And just all those insect issues are really hard to to tell what they are. I mean, brown spots could mean lots and lots of different types of insects. So that identification is important because the management is very different for all types of insect issues.

JULIE
So Anne yeah, thank you for that point that when we're testing to see about insects or even disease, the completely dead part of the lawn tells us nothing at that point other than the symptoms that we see. But that edge is really important where you've got the dead grass but you've still got some living grass. So whether it's with insects or even with disease, that's a critical point for identification.

So what are some disease issues?

ANNE
In talking about pests, we also have diseases that could cause decline and death with our our lawn or landscape plants too of course and a lot of them are exacerbated by excess water. So again, going back to proper management and maintenance before watering the appropriate amount, we could see a reduction or not at all of some of the diseases that typically affect our lawns, such as take-all root rot and pythium root rot, both which are caused by overwatering, stress from improper management.

JULIE
Yeah and I think the last pests or sometimes the most prevalent pests that we often notice can be weeds in the lawn. We mentioned earlier you know what overwatering some weeds that you might look out for, such as the dollarweed or the sedges, can be an indication of overwatering. But with weeds and weed management, timing is actually key.

And so we want to try, just like with insects, we want to get the younger stages. They're easier to control than when they're larger and established. Especially with weeds, when they're fully grown, they almost become a seed bank in this constant ongoing source of of new seedlings of weeds in the landscape. One thing you can do with weeds is to mow them before the flowers actually go to seed. So that's going to help reduce at least some of the new weeds from forming from seeds.

ANNE
Mowing is one way we could kind of help prevent more spread of weeds. But certainly if you are out in your lawn looking and you're out there frequently enough to see a new problem area pop up, you know, hand weeding is a really good control method. If you can catch some of those things early, particularly if they're seasonal and they're just kind of, you know, they're not going to be there in the summer months, it's a winter weed, and you can just hand pull it out so that you don't have to look at it or whatever it might be.

Weeds can also be managed with herbicides, obviously, so pre-emergents are an option, which is before (pre) the weeds emerge in the spring, and post emergent would be treating those weeds while they're growing. And it's really important that those are applied at the right time of year, the recommended time of year. So with those pre-emergents, early February for Central Florida, we're pretty well past that when this recording goes live.

So it's really important to know that they're only going to work if they're applied at that time. And we do want to mention that when people are thinking about weed control, that they do steer clear of anything labeled as a weed and feed product. And so what that is, is a mix of an herbicide and a fertilizer in one product, and they're just not effective and could potentially lead to plant damage. Those are products that are not applied in the same manner or even at the same time of year.

JULIE
To your point about, you know, not using weed and feeds, often the herbicide portion is a pre-emergent. And so as you mentioned, pre-emergents are applied before we start applying fertilizer in the landscape. So yeah, one or the other is not effective. And another thing about those weed and feeds, some of them contain an herbicide that can be damaging to woody trees and shrubs. So, you know, if those roots are reaching out into the lawn and you've applied that, you might notice some decline or some dead branches on those trees or shrubs nearby.

ANNE
Yeah, so just be mindful with weed control. You know, prevention is definitely best taking care of those by hand pulling, you know, really managing that that water. And really maintaining that healthy lawn is going to help with everything. So kind of some takeaways from what's going on with the lawn. Why is it dying? We've talked about all of those those different things, such as the wear and tear, the over and underwatering and the pest issues that can come from improper management is that, again, that ability to follow those proper cultural practices.

So just to kind of review that would be proper mowing height for the type of grass that you're growing with sharp, clean blades and then proper irrigation, the right amount and proper coverage, good coverage, head to head coverage and then proper application of nutrients. So we want to apply those at the right time, the right type of nutrients and the right rate of application if that's something that you're applying. 

And then also, you know, taking the time to walk around your landscape frequently to help you stay on top of issues and troubleshoot before things get really bad. So it could be again, with the weeds that you're able to get out there and pull weeds for a couple of minutes, and you've taken care of that area. You know to go back and watch it if there's an area of decline and maybe you could say, well, you know, this is an area that's been overwatered. And so now I pull the weeds and I can fix that irrigation system.

All right, so we talked about different reasons that grass won't grow or declines. And maybe instead of replacing grass where it won't grow we can look to alternatives. And we've made mention of a few of those throughout this episode as far as, you know, increasing shade and mulch and plants.

And we're going to talk a little bit about those now, because I think a lot of people are really interested in that. So where grass won t grow, it's real easy to apply mulch. So it could be that you're just increasing the size of an existing mulched bed, or making a totally new mulched bed in an area where grass has declined enough that you don't want to deal with trying to get it to come back again right?

So you can take time to determine what plants will grow in those areas using right plant, right place. You can simply start out by just saying, hey, I, you know, have an area of dead grass. I'm just going to mulch it, take time to go back and select plants using the right plant right place principle that will grow in the light and soil and all of that that's there now.

If you're having trouble figuring out how to incorporate areas that were lawn into a mulched bed, a garden hose is a really great tool. So you can kind of use that garden hose as a tool to experiment with shape and size of plant beds. So you take that garden hose out and drag it through the lawn to that dead area and just kind of lay it out in an area you think that would make a good shape and size of a plant bed, and then kind of move it around until you say, yep, that's the shape I want. And, you know, kind of taking into account ease of mowing the existing grass that s there, you know, not leaving a little six inch area of, of sod if a mower has to get through or something like that.

So take that hose, lay the shape you want, decide if it works for your yard, if you like how it looks, and then you could even use like spray paint or flags to kind of mark it in a design you like. And you can, I mean, do that and kind of look at it for a couple of days before you decide.

JULIE
Yeah and I think those are great tips if you're going to be expanding or installing a new landscape bed. And with that, I think it's important that we we've mentioned using mulch, maybe to mention a few of the Florida-Friendly landscaping mulches. And so those include pine bark, pine straw, melaleuca, eucalyptus. Even fallen leaves can be used as a mulch in addition to utility mulch. So that mulch that comes from tree trimmings around utility lines. You can often request that and use that as a mulch in a landscape bed as well.

You know, and when you're using mulch in these landscape beds, make sure you maintain a 2 to 3 inch height of that mulch. That's going to be a good level to allow water to infiltrate and air exchange, reduce those weeds, and retain that soil moisture. 

But just be sure to keep that mulch pulled away from the base of plants. We don't want it packed up against the base of any of the plants. Especially trees.

ANNE
All right, so after you've decided how you want to incorporate that declining area where grass won't grow into a planting bed, you've selected your mulch, decided what you're going to put in there, you can select plants. And so if you're looking for what is called a turf grass alternative. So something that's very low growing like your lawn might be, there are some really good low growing ground covers that are low maintenance that you can look to for those areas.

The first one we're going to talk about is called perennial peanut. It's becoming pretty popular and you actually can see it a lot around Central Florida, driving around on roadways, and kind of common areas of highways and county roads and things like that. Kind of known for its little yellow flowers all throughout the summertime. 

It can be mowed. It's very drought tolerant, full sun. It may go dormant in the winter. So that's something to be mindful of if that's, you know, a criteria that's important to you. But that can be just kind of plugged into your existing lawn and kind of will take over. You can go in and just plant areas from either a very small plant starts, you can purchase sod or even like one gallon sized pots to take over an area.

Another option would be Asiatic jasmine. Now, the first one we talked about, perennial peanut was great for full sun. And so Asiatic jasmine is more for a shady area and it will grow full sun or shade. But a lot of people do end up using it in a very shady area. It is evergreen with kind of small glossy green leaves.

It's great for shade. It does vine, so it will require some pruning to keep it in line, but otherwise is very easy to maintain. Now this is because of its vining manner isn't something you're going to be walking on where perennial peanut you could use more like your lawn.

JULIE
Yeah, another groundcover that you might consider is commonly called frogfruit. And so it's very low growing. It's actually a Florida native plant and it can handle dry or wet soil. So pretty adaptable. It can even be mowed. And it may go dormant in the winter. So as Anne mentioned previously, just keep that in mind with these ground covers that you might be installing.

Know that depending on how cool our temperatures get in the winter, some of them may go dormant or semi dormant. One other thing to note about frogfruit if you're interested in butterfly gardening, it's actually a host for three different butterflies. So in addition to to serving as potentially a drought tolerant groundcover, you can actually use it as an addition to host a few different butterflies.

Another groundcover you might consider is known as Salvia misella, or creeping sage. This is also a Florida native plant. It has tiny little blue flowers. It's in the sage family, so sometimes you might get a little hint of that fragrance if you brush it or walk on it. And tolerates full sun to shade. And again, as Anne mentioned, it's important if that's the issue you're dealing with, you might look for these ground cover alternatives that do tolerate shade.

And so this creeping sage is another plant that will handle those shade areas in the landscape. It handles dry soils and it's very drought tolerant once established as well. One thing I'd mention, if you're deciding to make any changes in your lawn species or using lawn alternatives like ground covers, make sure you follow any guidelines set by your HOA. This may include the need to present these changes in writing or present them to an architectural review committee. Just be aware of those if that is a requirement in your HOA.

ANNE
So Julie and I just talked about a few different turf grass alternative ground cover, very low growing plants that you could use as a ground cover in the areas where you lost or removed your lawn. And so these are all plants that could eventually become a lawn, just like you would have your Saint Augustine or bahiagrass. So we did mention putting them in a mulched bed, and they will need some mulch until they have the time to grow and completely cover that area that you're wanting them to cover.

So things like frogfruit and Asiatic jasmine, for sure, you're putting them in in maybe four inch or one gallon sized pots that will eventually cover an area and won't need mulch. But until they're established and have that coverage, you will need to put some mulch in between. Something like a pine straw works really well until these plants are established enough and have grown to cover that area that you're looking to cover.

Additionally, if you don't want a turf grass alternative ground cover, you can look to other plants for your mulched area. So for those shady areas, Asiatic jasmine, isn t something you're looking for? And you want a different type of look? Plants like coontie cycads and the native peperomia are really great in the shade. They're just not going to be a ground cover. They're going to be a little bit taller.

In today's episode, we talked a lot about what happens when grass won't grow and what we can do about it. So what are we going to do? We're going to look at our episode's garden checklist. So for this episode's garden checklist, take some time to walk your landscape and lawn. Look around, identify any problem areas, and if there are areas that you find that you know might not be doing so well, think about maybe what those different causes might be.

So is it wear and tear, shade, irrigation? Maybe you haven't had your irrigation on all winter, and all of a sudden it's warming up and you need to turn it on and it's not covering. So take the time to kind of play detective in your landscape and figure out what's going on in those problem areas. This will help you stay on top of any issues and troubleshoot before it gets really bad.

So if you can take the time to also make a reminder in your calendar, maybe make yourself a little alarm that goes off once a month to just take a quick walk through the yard and take a check at least once a month. That'll really help you stay on top of any landscape issues and kind of target those areas where grass won t grow before they're too bad.

JULIE
And for more information on when grass won't grow, information and workshops available, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension. Many have plant clinics that can further assist you. All resources for this episode are listed in the show notes.

ANNE
Thanks for listening to Your Central Florida Yard. We hope this episode has provided you with valuable insights and tips for your gardening journey in this unique part of the state. Your Central Florida Yard is produced by Anne Yasalonis and Julie Schleb. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, find our contact information in the show notes.

This podcast is brought to you by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, an equal opportunity institution. Thank you for listening and as always, happy gardening.

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Transcribed by L. Hice - 10/04/24

Proofed by J. Bayer-Fermier - 10/28/24

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