The old wives’ tale is that fairies are dancing in your yard at night resting on mushrooms. They were even said to be good luck, but most homeowners that are dealing with fairy rings don’t feel particularly lucky.
So what is really happening when you see a ring of mushrooms, darker green grass, or a dead looking ring of grass? Sadly, it doesn’t have anything to do with fairies or luck.
The answer is actually much more scientific. Mushrooms themselves are a common sight in many yards following lots of rain or water and can be kicked out or mowed up. These are pretty harmless to the lawn and aren’t something that need to be worried about. Mushrooms that are growing in rings are known as fairy rings and can be a bit more challenging to get rid of.
The fungi that produces fairy rings grows outward in a uniform pattern from one starting point, giving it a ring shape. These types of fungi aren’t actually attacking your turfgrass, but instead are breaking down organic materials in the soil, such as the roots from an old tree that was cut down or some other large deposit of organic material beneath your lawn. Once the deposit has been depleted by the fungi, the fairy ring will disappear, but this can take many years so many homeowners don’t want to just wait for it to go away.
So, what exactly is happening as the fungi breaks down the organic material? The breakdown causes the release of nitrogen which causes the grass in the circle to be darker green. In places where the mycelia of the fungus is growing thick or rather dense, it can prevent water from reaching the soil which causes the grass to start turning brown in the affected ring.
In terms of what you can do about fairy ring in your lawn, the most effective methods are pretty intensive. You can do your best to dig up whatever the organic deposit is beneath your lawn that is feeding the fungus or you can attempt to dig out the entire ring that houses the fungus. Remember to re-sod only with healthy fairy-ring-free sod. Less intensive measures can be tried, but may not bring about satisfactory results. Try a well-formulated fungicide and stay on top of keeping the thatch layer in your lawn to a healthy amount. Or, if you just want to hide some of the problem, try fertilizing the rest of your lawn with a nitrogen fertilizer to make it look greener as well!
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