Choose The Right Grass
Some people might not realize this, but there are many different types of grass. Some grasses, known as cool-season grasses, do better in cooler, northern latitudes. Conversely, hot-season grasses do better in the warmer south.
Cool-season grasses and hot-season grasses have different life cycles. The main growing spurts for cool-season grasses are spring and fall while hot-season grasses grow most in the heat of summer.
The important thing to note here is that you should select a grass that is appropriate to your climate. If you have the wrong type of grass for your region, it will be much harder to keep your lawn green all year.
When Will My Lawn Green Up
This picture illustrates how a Fine Fescue grass greens up differently than a Blue/Rye grass mix .
In the spring, many lawns are brown and still in their winter dormancy state. They will eventually green up, but timing depends on some external factors. Your lawns green up in the spring is dictated by the temperatures of the soil as well as grass type. The temperature of the soil needs to reach 50 to 65 degrees to actively start the growing and green-up process for northern grasses in our area including rye, blue and fescues. To further complicate things, different species of grasses green up at different soil temperatures. Thicker lawns can take a little longer to green up because the sunlight is not directly getting to the soil, hence taking more time for the soil to reach the desired green-up temperatures. Also, if you have a lot of tree cover or other shade issues, the soil may take a little longer to warm up, delaying your lawns green up. You cant control the external factors but there are a few things you can do to help your lawn green up a little quicker next spring.
What can be done to help the green up process in the spring?
Once your lawn greens up in the spring you are going to want to keep it that way for the rest of the season. Here are some helpful tips to keep your lawn green all season long especially during the hot and stressful summer months.
Diy Summer Lawn Care Vs Professional Lawn Care Service
There are pros and cons to tackling summer lawn care yourself or hiring a professional team to keep your lawn looking its best. Hiring a lawn care service, frees up your time and allows you to spend precious weekends with your family, not mowing the lawn. Professional lawn-care companies can address a variety of concerns from getting rid of weeds to helping your lawn thicken and green up or even helping with pests such as grubs, webworms, and chinch bugs. Regardless of whether you opt for a DIY approach or hire professionals, its possible to have a beautiful, green lawn all summer long. Just follow these steps, and your neighbors will be asking how you keep your grass so beautiful and how to take care of lawn grass in the summer.
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Water Deeply And Infrequently
In most parts of Texas, scorching temperatures and infrequent rainfall mean that your lawn can quickly become parched and dry. Adjust your watering schedule from the spring months to increase the amount of moisture delivered to your turf, based on the rainfall in your area and the condition of your grass. Have your irrigation system inspected, if you havent already, to ensure all parts are in working order and you dont have any leaks or broken sprinkler heads.
Keep a closer eye on your lawn so you can proactively water any dry spots, as needed, especially on the warmest days. You may want to try hand watering in particularly hot areas, such as near sidewalks. Youll need to water newer, less established grass and plants more frequently. Apply water to your landscape so that moisture goes all the way down into your grasss root systems, which is usually around 6 inches deep. This usually translates into one to two inches of watering once or twice a week. Resist the urge to overwater, since that can make your plants more vulnerable to pest damage and disease and your landscape can become more dependent on more water. Have someone check on your yard if you head out of town for summer trips.
South Shore Massachusetts Climate Grass
So, where does that leave us in South Shore Massachusetts? Well, if you remember from our blog about hardiness zones, South Shore MA is in hardiness zone 6b. This means that the warm season grasses are generally out, but we still have several of the cool season grasses to work with.
Here are a few that wed recommend :
- Kentucky Bluegrass
- Perennial Ryegrass
- Tall Fescues
- Fine Fescues, like creeping red fescue, chewings fescue, and hard fescue
Other kinds of grass that grow in Massachusetts
Because we live in a coastal region, there are also several other grasses that grow in our area . In fact, many coastal grasses are absolutely essential for preventing dune erosion and supporting unique ecosystems.
While you likely wont find these in your lawn, you can expect to see these types of grass in Massachusetts:
- American beachgrass
- Wavy hairgrass
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How And When To Water
Most established lawns need about one inch of water every week. That water can come from rain or irrigation. There is no reason to irrigate your lawn when it has already rained. So if the weather has been good to your lawn, you can keep the sprinklers off. But if the weather has been dry and there is no rain, you should irrigate your lawn.
The best way to water your lawn is long, deep, and infrequently. Giving your soil a good soaking no more than once a week forces your turfs roots to grow deep and strong to access the water as the soil dries. On the other hand, frequent and brief irrigation causes roots to spread only in the top few inches of the soil, leading to a weaker plant overall.
The best time to water is in the morning between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. before the full heat of the day. Watering early means less water is lost to evaporation, and it gives time for the turf to dry before nightfall. Watering in the evening or at night leaves grass soggy overnight, which can lead to fungal growth that damages your grass.
Also, avoid irrigating with hot water. When a garden hose sits in the summer sun, the water inside can get quite hot. Dont start irrigating with that water. Instead, empty your hose after every watering. If you forget to do that, dump the hot water outside of your lawn and wait for the water to turn cool before you start to irrigate.
Spring Lawn Care Tip #4 Get Loose By Aerating
When it comes to getting green grass in the summer, I found that aerating your lawn in the spring is a big deal, especially around here. If you dont have someone that does it regularly for you, chances are theyll be a company walking around The Meadows in a few weeks to offer this service. You can also rent a machine at Home Depot or Lowes. Aerating helps promote air flow in your grass, but it also helps loosen the soil so your lawn can absorb more moisture.
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Water Deeply And Less Often
Watering your grass is obviously important, but it isnt just as simple as watering more when the weather heats up.
When it comes to watering, preparation for the summer months should take place all year since you need to train your grass to become hardier.
If you water grass too often, it wont need to send down roots in search of water deeper below the surface. Grass that is watered too often develops a shallow, superficial root system, and when water becomes scarce, it struggles to survive.
To encourage deep and healthy root growth, you should water your lawn deeply once a week. This way, when the summer arrives, your grass is already stronger and hardier and better equipped to survive.
A watering schedule like this can sometimes be difficult to remember. An excellent solution is to install a sprinkler controller to take care of it for you.
Some smart controllers nowadays are even able to adapt the watering schedule to local weather conditions, ensuring your grass receives exactly the optimum amount of water without you having to think about it.
Replace Lawn Mower Blades
Dull mower blades create jagged grass edges that quickly turn brown. The individual blades of grass will look torn, not neatly cut. They may even get a white tint to the tips of them. That means its time to sharpen your lawn mower blades.
Mowing with sharpened blades goes a long way to improve the look of your lawn. Sharpen mower blades once or twice a year. Its a simple task you can do yourself. If your blade is too far gone, replace it.
When youre working with a sharpened mower blade, be careful not to cut too much of your lawn at once. For the healthiest lawn, only remove one-third of the grass height at a time. Chopping off tall grass with one swipe of the lawn mower can lead to a burnt look. Its not good for your lawn or your mower.
Interestingly, different grass types prefer to be varying heights. Just as not all flowers grow to the same height, neither does grass.
When learning how to get your lawn greener, take note of the grass type:
- Cool-season grasses like Kentucky blue grass like to be short.
- A warm-season lawn of St. Augustine grass prefers to grow taller.
Grass height matters when youre aiming to get the greenest lawn possible. A freshly mowed lawn should always look healthy and lush.
Now that you know how to make grass greener, its time to get your supplies. Need help finding spreaders for grass seed and fertilizer? Find products fast with image search in The Home Depot Mobile App. Snap a picture of an item you like, and we’ll show you similar products.
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How To Restore Green Color To A Lawn In Hot Weather
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Without enough water and fertilizer, many turf grasses naturally go dormant over the hottest months of the year. Warm-season grasses, though, experience their peak growth in hot weather, and it doesn’t take much to restore their green color. Extra water and some nitrogen fertilizer will give the lawn a quick boost, and continuing maintenance helps keep the lawn from turning brown again.
How To Deal With Grass In Summer Heat
The dog days of summer are a constant worry for homeowners, as just a few days without rain can really impact a once-lush lawn. Then theres the heat to contend with!
We cant give you any tips for how to stay cool yourself in the summer heat, but we can provide some recommendations to help support your grass:
- Use appropriate mowing techniques. Longer grass will help to shade the roots and prevent any harmful exposure to the sun. This will also help the roots of the grass grow deeper, thus outcompeting weeds and creating a denser turf. That said, use a blade height of about four inches in summer, mow less frequently, and mow earlier in the day.
- Avoid watering in the heat of the day, choose early morning or late evening instead. Keep in mind that your lawn will need about one inch of water a weekbut it can tolerate about half an inch every 14-days, depending on water restrictions in your area .
How to keep grass green in a drought?
If youre starting from scratch, youre in luck. Its easy to find drought-resistant and fast-growing grass seeds, especially like the fescues we mentioned earlier. These grasses establish themselves quickly, dont require a lot in the way of maintenance, and are one of our best bets for having a green lawneven in periods of drought.
If youre not starting out with a new lawn, however, there are still some things you can do to keep your grass green during drought :
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Tips To Keep Lawn Green In Summer Heat
Its a familiar story we work hard all year keeping our lawns finely manicured and neatly mown but when the heat of the summer arrives, our grass turns brown and seems to die.
Is there anything we can do about this? Well, the good news is that there is a lot we can do.
There are quite a few actions we can take throughout the year and especially in the summertime to keep our lawns lush and green so here, we talk about how to keep lawn green in summer heat.
If you want a preview of some the things were going to be talking about, check out this video first.
Watch For Weeds Pests And Disease
Some of the damage you see on your lawn during the summer months may be because of pests and disease and not stress related to the heat, and weeds can also appear during this time of year. Grubs may become a bigger problem in the middle of the summer, so you may need to apply an insecticide to affected areas during this time if you notice damage or pest activity. These products usually also help with chinch bugs.
Proper drainage will help prevent summer lawn diseases, so make sure water does not collect in certain parts of your yard. If you are wondering whether damage on your lawn is drought stress or chinch bugs, try hand watering these spots for a few days. If the grass does not recover, bring in a lawn professional to determine whether you need to treat impacted areas for chinch bugs.
If you did not apply a pre-emergent herbicide during the spring, you may need to use a weed control product as grass or broadleaf weeds appear in your yard. The type of treatment is highly dependent on the type of weed you have in your yard, so proper identification is key to a successful outcome. Keep in mind that applying any products during the hottest part of summer can add further stress to your landscape, so hand-pulling weeds may be your best tactic.
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Tips For Watering Your Lawn In The Summer:
- Be respectful of water restrictions if present in your community.
- The best time to water your lawn in the summer is in the early morning hours, ideally before sunrise. This way, the water has a chance to soak in before the sun dries it out.
- Carefully place your sprinkler or hose to avoid watering the street and sidewalks. This is just a waste of water.
- Monitor the watering to make sure that certain areas arent becoming too saturated.
- Dont forget to account for rain when watering your lawn. If you have had an especially rainy week, you wont have to water your lawn as much or at all, if the ground is still moist.
- If you have an irrigation system adjust your timers as weather changes and inspect for damaged or leaking heads.
Its Not Just About Watering
Keeping your grass green year-round is not just about watering although this certainly plays an important role. The key to having a green lawn in the summer is keeping it as healthy and strong as possible throughout the year.
Another point worth making before we continue is that brown grass isnt necessarily unhealthy grass. In fact, grass that is under heat and drought stress naturally goes into a dormant state and turns brown as a way of protecting itself.
You might think that a brown lawn is unattractive but if your lawn turns brown, it isnt a reason to panic. Unless conditions become too extreme, your grass will quickly spring back into life as soon as the rains and the cooler temperatures return.
Now lets look at the most important aspects of keeping your grass green year-round.
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Follow These Steps And Your Grass Will Always Stay Green And Thick
Theres nothing better than a lush, green lawnespecially when youre equipped with the know-how for how to get it there.
Were happy to let you in on a few secrets for how to make your grass green. It starts with knowing your grass, but continues with using fertilizer and addressing any damage as it comes.
We spoke to our landscaping pros who have combined over 50 years of keeping grass looking green and healthy and they boiled everything down to 4 essential points that we unpack in this article.
How To Keep A Lawn Green In The Summer Heat
In the heat of a Texas summer, it can feel like keeping your grass green is a full-time jobwhich makes sense when you learn that even warm season species prefer temperatures in the 70s. It may seem like after you miss one day of watering, all of a sudden there are brown spots everywhere. Looking at what appears to be a dying lawn, you may realize youre not completely sure how to keep your lawn green in the summer heat.
As you might suspect, the most important thing you can do for your lawn during the hottest times of the year is to water. In most Texas lawns, watering between a half-inch to a full inch of water each week can keep grass species that are suited for our climate healthy even in high temperatures. Bermuda grass and buffalo grass can handle just a half-inch of water, as well as other types of grass that arent exposed to full sun throughout the day, while other species will require more moisture to thrive. Grass will need less water when in humid, cool and less windy conditions.
If you are certain that youre watering your grass the right amount, but your lawn is still not looking its best, your problem could be the time of day youre watering or how often you set your sprinklers to run. Water in the early morning, so that you lose less moisture to evaporation, and so that your plants arent wet for too long, since that can make them more vulnerable to disease.
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