Brown patches on lawn

ki_buxt

When we moved in five years ago our house only had a very poorly-established lawn (by my standards at least). I have gradually added extra soil to build up the depth and use an ecological fertiliser in small amounts, but on a regular basis. We are located in southern Norway, so the lawn is buried under snow and ice from around November to April each year. Last year we had the same heatwave that the UK experienced with 34 days of temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius and no rain for around 10 weeks . Most of the lawn did ok, but patches had died and I repaired these last autumn by resowing.

This year has been far milder, wetter and the lawn looks generally OK, but there are some brownish patches I can't get rid of no matter what I try. These have had an extra round of soil with a fair amount of sand mixed in, extra seeding, but they refuse to disappear. The blade on the lawn mower has been sharpened, but that hasn't helped either. Does anyone have any advice? Lawn care is not big here in Norway, but as the lawn is the centrepiece of our garden, my eyes seem to focus on the brown patches first, an I would love to get rid of them! Pictures follow in two separate posts as the are too large to load up with this message. 

ki_buxt

ki_buxt

BobFlannigon

Wow, what a beautiful garden you have!!  The first thing that came to mind was urine burn.  Is there anything around that might cause that (Cats, Dogs, Foxes etc.)?

ki_buxt

Thank you! Glad you like the garden. Yes, that might indeed be it - urine burn. Neighbours' cats regularly wander through our garden, and we have a family of 5 deer as well as at least 2 large elks in the area that we try to keep out. If it is urine burn, is there anything I can do besides digging the patches up and starting from scratch? 

BobFlannigon

Usually you can dilute it with water if you notice the spot it happens on, obviously with Cats and Deer that's difficult.  You could try diluting, if it's a new area, the root might still recover.
Otherwise it should be sufficient to rinse the area and put some new seed down (you could rake it first) or indeed dig it out and re-turf, if you have the motivation to!
If it were me, I'd probably just leave it but then my garden is not as nice as yours!!

ki_buxt

Thanks again. I will try diluting and some new seed. It is actually raining here after five days of temperatures above 30 degrees C, so that will help me on my way.