My grass has turned yellow, not growing, looks dead..is my soil to blame?

[Macka]

Hiya, i wonder if anyone can help and send me in the right direction. We ordered 6 tons of top soil in summer of 2011. Then layed the turf down and watered often, as you do. All was well, our front looked fantastic.
However during early summer of 2012 i started to notice that the grass didn't grow as well, started to look "dry, yellowish" although the summer was a wash out.
The grass simply stopped growing and looks yellow, dead. I have done some research on this matter. I am thinking that maybe the top soil we had delivered was simply not good (ordered from a top soil supplier in yellow pages)
anyone know what can be the cause of my yellow grass?
I am planning on doing a soil test to determine PH, also to pull some out to see if I have lavae. Other than that, I don't know how to save my lawn. Do I have to pull it all out??
Thank you,

[Aberdeenplotter]

really difficult without seeing it close up.. If the grass has died, you could try throwing down a soil top dressing with grass seed mixed through but wait till spring is here and it is warm enough for the seed to germinate. It may be that the grass will grow away anyway once it warms up.

[alldigging]

I think you should upload some photos of the lawn.

[redser]

What was under the new topsoil? Is it compacted soil? If so maybe the roots are shallow and drowning.
Have you fed it at all?
Photos would be good as mentioned.

[Macka]

thank you all for your replies. I can finally take some pictures, the last night snow has just melted :-)
I have also done the soil test (purchased it from my local B&Q) and the resultant solution came out very dark green, meaning 8.0 alkaline. As you can see from my pictures, even my little hedging bushes started to turn yellow. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[bearded bloke]

What was growing before you spread the imported topsoil ?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Have to say your grass looks just like mine did a couple of years ago that turned out to be leatherjackets.

Colin

[Macka]

the ground under my top soil is not great, hence the order of 6 tons of top soil. The ground was compacted, pebbley, very heavy, absolutely not suitable for any growing. We have levelled it off with sharp sand, weed control fabric and then aprox 4inches of top soil. I have done bit of a feeding last summer when I have noticed something was wrong, didn't help. The whole lawn seems to be affected, gradually moving towards the lower level.
This morning test showed alkaline soil, then potstubsdustbins(great name :-)) ) suggested leatherjackets...what do I do? Thank you

[Macka]

one more think which could be relevant to my problem..I have noticed lots of wormcasts on affected lawn..

[redser]

I would imagine the soil profile is the problem. Your grass is stressed because the topsoil is only 4 inches deep. Your grass only has shallow roots. When it's wet, the roots sit in the wet and the plant is drowning. When it is dry, the shallow roots don't have access to deeper moisture beneath. So all in all its not good unfortunately.
That would be my reading of it, sorry

[Aberdeenplotter]

If you have lots of worm casts, you will have lots of drainage caused by worm holes/tunnels so it is unlikely that your grass will have drowned. Football clubs buy worms by the thousand to help with drainage

[WendyC]

Do you think the weed membrane is stopping the water from draining away freely? I think I understand why you put it down but I'm not sure it's helping now.

[Potstubsdustbins]

If you think it maybe caused by pests there are two main candidates, leatherjackets or chafer grubs, the damage from both looks very similar.

You would first need to identify the problem/grub a quick google will bring up good pictures of both. I think you will find that both are dormant at this time of year so you will a little time to discover exactly what you are dealing with.

Colin

Colin

[veggiechicken]

I'd go with the weed membrane being the problem too. You don't normally plant on top of it.

[Two_Sheds]

The grass simply stopped growing and looks yellow, dead.

It's the membrane. It's designed to be covered by a mulch of bark/soil/gravel, not living lawn or plants. You can plant INTO membrane, but this involves cutting a hole in the plastic and planting into the soil beneath.

I'm afraid you'll have to take it all up and start again. Sorry