Who’s never tried popping a boil, a blister, or an inflamed pimple? A quick search online reveals that many people are somewhat intrigued when popping a bubble, whether it’s a blister on your body or a bubble on a plastic mail wrapper.
What about a lawn bubble or blister? For sure, you would love popping one of these magnificent bubbles! People often refer to that as the most soothing and satisfying feeling ever! Studies show that humans have a fascination with popping and bursting things.
But where do lawn bubbles come from, and how do they form? Are they hazardous to your lawn, or do they pose any danger? To help you answer the above questions, let’s first understand what a lawn bubble is?
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What You Need To Know About Grass Bubble
What Is A Lawn Bubble?
A lawn bubble, also known as a grass blister, is nothing more than a bubble of water that forms under the grass surface. Just like the pimple on your face, a lawn bubble can grow to monstrous sizes. Even though large lawn bubbles usually appear in large fields like golf courses, they can also occur in your backyard.
Though not very common, some grass bubbles can contain different gasses emitted by decomposing plants instead of water. Lawn bubbles are typically tender and mushy, with a wobbly feel similar to that of a waterbed with a bubbling sound when squeezed.
These water pockets (lawn bubbles) usually form between the nicely woven grass and the plastic sheet underneath the lawn.
Now that you know what a lawn bubble is, let’s get to understand what causes lawn bubbles?
What Causes Lawn Bubble?
Understanding what causes the formation of a lawn bubble will help you know its impact on your lawn. Plus, you will also understand whether bursting the grass bubble will pose any health risk or not.
Lawn bubbles are created when water gets trapped under the grass and is unable to drain away. During heavy rains, water can flood your lawn, making it difficult to drain. If there is no rain and a lawn bubble happens to form on your field, it is probably a result of a broken water pipe beneath the surface.
Lawn bubbles are quite popular where a plastic sheet has been placed before planting the grass. Water gets stuck between the sheet and the ground underneath, forming a water pocket resembling a waterbed.
How Do You Remove Lawn Blisters?
Generally speaking, having a lawn bubble under your lawn is not really a positive thing because it can spoil the lawn’s beautiful look. Luckily, getting rid of the lawn bubble is a straightforward thing. To do so, use your gardening tools to make holes around the bubbles; this will make the water drain out.
But before you do that, you need to determine what triggered the lawn blister in the first place. If it’s a broken pipe, that you can quickly fix, but if natural weather events like heavy rains, that’s surely beyond your control.
The thing is, if you remove the lawn bubble without first addressing the underlying source, it will, without a doubt, reappear in a couple of days.
Using gardening equipment, you can first tear the lawn bubble and then make small waterways to drain the water within the bubble. However, there is a drawback! The lawn will no longer be as pretty as it was before.
Naturally, tearing or pocking holes on your lawn will most definitely do some damage to your lawn.
A point to note: please don’t do make so many holes or tears because when the bubble bursts, it would be better to deal with a few holes rather than the whole lawn riddled with holes everywhere.
Another thing, when the water drains, you need to clean up the muddy mess, or you risk having a waterlogged lawn afterward.
Get rid of grass carrying wasps
Are Lawn Blisters Harmful to Your Grass?
While lawn bubbles tend to slow down the grass growth rate, it’s not a hidden sinkhole, and it’s not harmful to humans. Unless in instances where the lawn blisters can form due to natural gases(a good example was in Siberia in 2016 – hundreds of lawn bubbles did form due to carbon dioxide and methane gas).
The main trigger for lawn blisters is excess water. With excess water, grass can easily submerge underwater. This is one reason why lawn blisters are deemed dangerous to your grass, as the water can easily uproot the grass.
With excess water, your grass misses the opportunity to receive the required nutrients as it’s hard for the grassroots to make contact with the soil. Lawn bubbles will eventually destroy your grass if left unattended.
Also: Get paint off of grass
Is My Lawn At Risk Of Having Lawn Bubbles?
This is a tricky question since it is dependant on various factors like your drainage system, the amount of rainfall, and the quality of watering pipes beneath your lawn ( damaged pipes can contribute to lawn blisters formation ).
Do Lawn Bubbles Have Any Benefits?
Most people are not fond of lawn bubbles, but if you are an open-minded person, you can use them to your advantage, especially when it comes to landscaping. The lawn bubbles can give your field a beautiful new look.
In golf courses, lawn bubbles can create new ground patterns that can make new playing paths. They also tend to improve the overall look of the golf park.
Grass that turns brown in winter
A grass bubble under your lawn should not be a big deal unless it’s not water that’s within the bubble if you are not a fan of water bubbles and want nothing to do with them.
You can quickly get rid of the waterbeds with simple gardening equipment. Don’t worry! It’s not a complex process and won’t take much of your time.
But if you have kids and are creative enough, you can opt to do something different with the bubbles. One thing though, please make sure they are safe to play with and cannot pose any danger to you and your kids.
Then you’re free to let your imagination run wild and use the lawn waterbeds for your outdoor activities.
