Summer Lawn Care Solutions Of all the plants in your landscape, grass is the one that can last the longest without water. For a healthy lawn, up to six weeks can pass without watering without much of an issue! While it is best to let your lawn go dormant while it’s hot and dry outside, there are a few things you can do during the summer to keep it looking beautiful. •
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Once you’ve decided to let the lawn to go dormant, just let it happen. An occasional, light watering during a drought will deplete the roots of its resources. Your lawn needs this energy stay alive. The grass will start to develop new leaves, only to have them die off when watering stops and dry conditions return. If you must irrigate during the summer, do so infrequently and deeply. Apply about 1 inch of water every 7 to 10 days. The water may be administered one-half inch at a time or all at once. Place a straight-sided container in the landscape and when it contains the amount of water desired, you’re finished! Try not to walk on dormant lawns. Foot traffic and landscape equipment will crush the dry, delicate crowns, possibly damaging or killing the grass. When grass goes dormant, it turns brown and crispy. Because it is not growing, you won’t have to mow as often, if at all. If you do in fact need to mow, keep the grass at least 3 inches tall. Never use fertilizer in the summer. It stresses the lawn, pushing growth that can’t be supported by the root system or watering. If necessary, apply a broad-leaf weed killer in late August. Sometimes, insects you may not notice can travel from the yard to your home. To stop them, summer pest control can be beneficial to keep the bugs on the outside. You can also reduce their outside presence by treating the lawn for insects such as fleas and ticks and fire ants.
It is really best to wait until later in the season for most other lawn care practices, including fertilizing, seeding, thatch control, and applying weed killers. The period from late August through early September is ideal for many of these lawn care procedures. For now, help your