Question
I have moved into a nice place but the lawn is brown and I was told that the former renter may have poured bleach all ovr it as he was mad at the landlord. What if any effect will bleach have on the grass and is there a cure to revive it if this is the case?

Answer
Hi Richard Close,

Bleach is a sodium salt of hypochloric acid and should eventually be dispersed in the soil and pose no major threat to the turf-grasses.  Time and watering should fix matters.  However, many factors can be involved in such a 'toxic soil' scenario, for example the mere quantity of bleach involved, the drainage capacity of the soil, soil-chemistry and physics, etc.

In summary, try adding some extra watering for a while to see if you can speed up Nature's help.  If it seems like recovery is too slow for you, you can excavate away the worse areas of damage and replace the top-soil with some commercial potting soil from the garden center.  Re-seed the areas and in a couple of weeks you should have the lawn up and going again. These repare measures should be done BEFORE the summer heat arrives. Otherwise it is not possible to predict the natural recovery from the information given.

Good Luck!
JHG.