Last week I noticed my neighbor's lawn suddenly turned brown overnight and I think I know why

I live in a suburb near Phoenix and last Tuesday I saw our HOA guy spraying something near the sprinkler system. The next morning all the grass on that side was dead as a doornail. Has anyone else dealt with accidental over-spray killing their yard?

3 comments

3 Comments

stella_baker10d ago

I mean, you say "accidental over-spray" but have you actually confirmed that's what happened? Maybe the HOA guy was treating a specific fungus or pest that only showed up on that side of the lawn. Brown grass overnight could be from a fast-acting disease or even a heat spike if your sprinklers malfunctioned. It feels like you're jumping straight to blaming the HOA without giving them a chance to explain. Maybe it's just me but I'd ask what they were spraying before assuming it killed everything.

hayden4669d ago

You know what, that actually makes a lot of sense and kind of changed my view on it.

piperwhite9d ago

I watched my sister deal with almost this exact situation in her neighborhood outside of Albuquerque. She had a big dead patch show up after the HOA was doing their quarterly treatment, and it turned out they were using a pre-emergent that was not supposed to be applied so close to the roots. The thing is, Stella makes a fair point about asking first, but my experience tells me that HOA guys often use a pretty strong mix that can kill grass fast if they get careless. The brown grass over one night sounds a lot like chemical burn to me, especially if it happened right after they sprayed. I think the key is to actually ask to see the product label or the mixing ratio, because those guys sometimes wing it and don't follow directions. You have every right to know what they put down on your property, and if they refuse to tell you, that tells you something right there.