Lawn appears to be dying

Two years ago I had a new lawn laid about May time, and followed the instructions on keeping it well watered and not to cut it for 6 weeks or so. for the rest of that year and teh first half of last year the lawn looked great, then in late summer and autumn i was surprised to see a very large number of mushrooms growing in the lawn, (I din't pick them as I am allergic to mushrooms). Now at teh moment the grass appears to be dying by which I mean it has gone brown and dry with no sign of green, there is no moss or other weeds growing either.. Any ideas suggestions please?

 

It may need aerating. If the soil is too compact then the grass can't establish a decent root system so you get very fine grass that'll go brown at the earliest opportunity (dry spell). Take a soil sample, you'll see either compaction of the soil or a lot of thatch which can also cause weak grass to germinate.

 

What preparation did you go through before laying the turf? oh, I see you had it laid.

What was there before the lawn?

 

It was an old lawn that the previous occupiers had used a dumping ground for their old furniture.

When I moved in I had the old lawn (what was left) removed an then had the soil rotovated to a depth of tens inches followed by a light compaction to level the ground.

It was the same process for the back lwan whicj is doing ok.

 

When it rains do large puddles form on the lawn which take a long time to disappear. If so its a drainage problem.

If not give if a good lawn feed but without weed or mosskiller.

Brush off the toadstools as soon as you see them.

 

lots of lawn are looking ropey this year after the winter, but i guess yours is looking worse than the surrounding ones for you to post.....most mushrooms dont do any harm to lawn one exception being fairy rings, as the name implies the damage forms in large circular rings...sound famiiar?
I wouldnt have thought it would need aerating or scarifying a year after laying, a spring feed wouldnt hurt ..if that doesnt green it up there may be a more underlying problem

 

I don't get any puddles but when I walked on it this morning (no rain for about a week) my foot sank to over the top of my ankle so it does look like a drainage problem of sorts.

 

drainage or compaction problem. Soil sample as Housesecond suggests. You need to establish how far down is the cause of the problem if its compaction.

 

I had a similar problem last year and it turned out to be a drainage problem! Chris