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(Another) Mystery pattern in lawn

A recent posting on a mystery pattern generated a lot of interested responses so I thought I'd add one myself. The chequered pattern appeared recently over the entire lawn,  following shortly

after forking, raking and fertiliser application (amateur not professional) and  coincided with the width of the fork. The mystery is why chequered? since it was only forked  in one direction (horizontal axis). I can discount scalping since it appeared before cutting. Suggestions please.

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  • Narrow drop spreader, gone over in two directions, and overlapped?

    • Good suggestion but actually spread by hand, so not applicable here

  • PRO Supplier

    What's underneath the lawn? Did there used to be paving there?

    • I believe it was a tennis court in the 80's before the house was built. The pattern hasn't appeared in the recent years that I've been tending  the lawn, gradually restoring it from a moss tundra to something resembling a front lawn, until the chess board that exists now.

  • PRO

    Hi Terry

    How deep could you work a fork into the surface?

    The pattern could be caused by paving stones/cobbles below the surface. The darker areas where grass is growing more healthily could be the joints between the stones, especially if the joints are soil.

    [edit: I should have been paying attention, sorry Daisy]

    • Hi Phil

      I don't believe there are paving stones as I would have noticed them before when digging some flower borders. However your question about the depth of forking got me thinking you might be on to something,  as it was to the full depth of the blades.  I'm wondering if this penetrated a soil pan with the same consequence as you described and the perpendicular hatching occurred due to the pan fracturing when the fork was levered back to extract it. Does this sound too far fetched? 

  • There are no straight lines in nature so has to be something to do with the sub base given the fert was hand spread. My guess is the fert application has scorched the grass but this has only manifested itself in the pattern defined by whatever is under the lawn. An exploratory dig seems the only method likely to yield any information. 

    • Neil

      I think there was a little bit of fertiliser scorching in places as you suggest but I doubt whether  I could have replicated the chequered pattern so precisely over the entire lawn.

      • "only manifested itself in the pattern defined by whatever is under the lawn"

  • PRO

    Need another few pictures

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