Burnt Grass Care Tips

Flush It

• As soon as you notice that you've over-fertilized your lawn, flush it with lots of water until the water is running freely off of your lawn. Flooding the grass helps to leach out any nitrogen that has collected in the lawn's root zone where it is doing all the damage. Let your lawn dry out, and flush it a second time.

Rake and Reseed

• Rake your lawn vigorously with a hard-tined metal rake. This helps scrape out any grass that has died from the chemical burns, exposing the bare soil underneath. Then, reseed your lawn by scattering the seed of whatever grass species you're growing. The grass seed will help to quickly fill in any gaps or thinned-out grass patches faster than waiting for the remaining grass to spread on its own.

Change Your Fertilizer

• Synthetic fertilizers are high in salt. When combined with the nitrogen, synthetic fertilizer increases the risk of chemical burns. In contrast, organic sources of nitrogen, such as compost, fertilize your grass slowly thanks to low but continuous sources of nitrogen as the organic matter decomposes. This makes such organic fertilizer sources much safer if you're worried about burns. Alternatively, choose synthetic slow-release lawn fertilizers, which are designed to dissolve slower than standard grass fertilizer.

Wait for Dry Grass

• Once your grass has been restored to health and you're ready to fertilize again, don't apply fertilizer unless your lawn is dry. Moisture on the grass or in the soil helps to pull the nitrogen out of the fertilizer faster, thus increasing the risk of fertilizer burn.