Hi, recently I laid a new lawn and it all came up very thick, but over the last week there are patches of browning in my new lawn. What is the cause and how do I repair the problem? Thanks, Bob.

There could be several reasons for the brown patches – lack of watering, overwatering, grass grub, dogs going toliet on the lawn or burning from over application of lawn fertiliser. Increase watering if brown patches are starting to appear. Apply Debco SaturAid granular soil wetter to help retain moisture in the soil and channel water to the roots. Long deep waterings 2-3 times a week are more beneficial than light sprinklings every night as deep watering encourages roots to penetrate deeper into the soil where light waterings encourage shallow rooting and so more chance of the grass burning off when there is a drought.

Grass grub feed on plant roots and so the tops will die off leaving brown patches. If you dig a spade depth down into the soil you may or may not see grass grub present, you may see small brownish black beetles appearing which may indicate grass grub. Some grass varieties are bred to be resistant to grass grub. If fertiliser has been applied too thickly and not watered in sufficiently then it can cause burning. Rake out the brown patches, apply Tui Lawn Preparation Mix and then sow lawn seed.