Adjust Your Irrigation Schedule
If you have an automatic irrigation system, its important to adjust the watering schedule during the summer.
Watering your lawn too much can actually do more harm than good.
Overwatering can lead to root rot, fungal diseases, and even weed growth.
Its best to water your lawn for a longer duration but less often, known as deep watering. This will help the water to reach deep into the soil and deliver the nutrients from the soil that your lawn needs.
The goal is to apply at least one inch of water per week.
However, you must also be mindful of water restrictions in your area.
Compared to shallow watering, this process will help your grass to develop deep roots, making it more tolerant to drought conditions and heat.
Speak To An Expert At Patuxent Nursery
For more answers to your questions about lawn care, visit the experts at our Garden Center in Bowie, MD. There, you will find everything you need to keep your lawn green and healthy as well as a friendly and knowledgeable staff to help you choose the right tools and supplies for your needs.
Patuxent Nursery, located in Bowie, Maryland, was started in 1996 by longtime area residents Don and Susan Stelfox. Originally geared toward landscape professionals, Patuxent soon expanded to serve homeowners in Bowie and the surrounding areas in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia.
Our store offers customers a unique shopping experience and features a gardening-oriented gift shop, outdoor living accessories, an assortment of colorful flowers and edibles and the largest selection of trees and shrubs in the metro area.
We specialize in lawn care and we carry all of the products you need to maintain an attractive lawn, including seed, soil amendments, pest and disease control products, weed killer, weed-and-feed, fertilizers and soil conditioners.
Contact Grass experts in Bowie, MD to speak to an expert at our store today and find out how to keep your lawn healthy and green all summer long.
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Ways To Keep Your Lawn Green During The St Louis Summer Heat
St. Louis summers can wreak havoc on a green lawn. Hot weather, full sun, high heat indexes, and little rainfall means much of your grass can turn brown by mid June.
If you want to avoid dead, brown grass, and keep your lawn green here are 5 summer lawn care tips to keep that grass looking good.
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Lawns Need Air To Breathe
Lawns need oxygen as well as water, so its important to keep your lawn aerated. Aeration involves perforating the soil at intervals to alleviate compaction, allowing water, air and nutrients to penetrate deep below the surface. The easiest and cheapest method is to push a garden fork into the ground at 15cm intervals over the entire lawn, although for large areas it may be easier to hire a machine to do the hard work so you dont have to. An aerated lawn will also be better at absorbing water rather than letting it run off.
Six: Let Your Lawn Breathe
Aeration is so important in proper maintenance of your grass in summer! Just like us, air is as important as water for survival, so to keep your lawn luscious and green ALL summer long, you want to make sure you Let. It. Breathe!
Aeration is not only good for providing your grass with air, but it also allows for better water absorption rather than creating swamping or a run-off on your lawn!
There are many methods that you can use to aerate your lawn based on cost and time efficiency. Luckily for you, weve compiled a list of the BEST lawn aerators of 2022 ranging from manual, chemical and electrical methods!
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How To Keep Your Lawn Green In The Summer
There are several steps that can be taken to keep your lawn healthy and green even during the hottest, driest days of summer. Keeping your grass green throughout the summer months doesnt have to be overly complex. By following these tips with consistency, your lawn should remain beautiful all season long.
How Much Water Should I Use
Try not to overwater your lawn as this could encourage weed growth, and risk of mold and disease. “Make sure youre getting between 1-1.5 inches of water on the lawn each week”, advises Elworthy. “A simple rain gauge is all you need. Some even use a coffee mug and a ruler. It doesnt have to be overly precise.” Another way of checking this is by probing the soil with a stiff metal rod. The rod should move easily through the wet soil and then stop once it gets to the dry soil.
If you’re looking at other beat the heat tips, you can also check out the top 7 deals to help you stay cool and beat the heat and you can read about how my iPad let me work while beating the heat wave.
Cynthia Lawrence specialises in Homes ecommerce, covering all things homes and garden-related. She has a wealth of editorial experience testing the latest, must-have home appliances, writing buying guides and the handy how to features.
Her work has been published in various titles including, T3, Top Ten Reviews, Ideal Home, Real Homes, Livingetc. and House Beautiful, amongst many.
With a rather unhealthy obsession for all things homes and interiors, she also has an interior design blog for style inspiration and savvy storage solutions . When shes not testing cool products, shell be searching online for more decor ideas to spruce up her family home or looking for a great bargain!
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Keep Items Off The Lawn
If you want to keep your whole lawn green, try to keep items off of it. Its easy to forget a kiddie pool, a pile of weeds, or a table out on the lawn.
If you leave something on top of your grass for too long, youll likely soon discover a dead patch of grass. Thats because these items hide the grass from air and light, which are essential to its growth.
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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Soak The Lawn With A Sprinkler System
Ensure you soak the lawn thoroughly until you see small puddles of water on the surface. “The best way to water your grass in hot conditions is to use a sprinkler system and really soak the lawn, agrees Jonathan McQuire, gardener. It takes an awful lot of water to keep grass healthy in the heat, and you’re sometimes better off using the water on your beds, as flowers aren’t as hardy and are often more expensive. Even if your grass looks like straw, it will recover. There are many affordable sprinkler systems like this GOLDFLOWER Garden Sprinkler ) to best water your lawn.
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.
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Make A Few Mower Adjustments
When it comes time to mow your lawn, adjust your mower for a longer setting. Its always good to go by the one third rule: never remove more than one third of the grass height at one time. And speaking of mowers, do your best to keep your mower blades nice and sharp, as this will help reduce any stress or fraying of the grass blades when its time to cut.
During higher temperatures, dont bag your grass clippings. This applies especially to mulching mowers, as mulched grass can settle into the lawn and help trap moisture. This will help you retain a cooler surface temperature, which can also help hydrate your lawn.
How To Make Grass Thicker
In addition to choosing the right grass in the first place and regularly aerating your lawn, you can do a few additional things to make your grass thicker
- Address diseases. Avoid mowing when the lawn is wet and check for signs of disease or fungal infection. This may appear as powdery residue or colored patches or spots. Also, check for indications of pest damage .
- Ensure that your soil is healthy. Check for your local extension field office and obtain a soil-testing kit. It will alert you to nutrient deficiencies that may be responsible for your thinning lawn.
- Water regularly and apply a nitrogen fertilizer. Dont worry, well discuss more about this below.
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Mowing Tips To See Great Results
Reduce your mowing frequency during the hottest parts of the summer. When the sweltering heat arrives, youll likely be mowing only once per week or even once every ten days.
The general rule is to raise your mower one to two notches above where you mowed in the spring. Your grass should be allowed some extra growth in the summer before mowing, but close monitoring is necessary. A way to visualize this is through the rule. You should try to avoid removing more than of the grass blade while mowing.
The ideal time to mow is in the early evening when the sun is beginning to go down. This gives your grass ample time to recover overnight. Avoid mowing just after rainfall or after watering. Running mower wheels over the soft ground can damage your grassroots.
Dont Let Weeds Take Over
Weeds love summer, when youre so distracted by vacation, frosty drinks on the patio, and which flip-flops to wear, they think you might not notice them. Show them whos boss and keep your lawn healthy in the summer heat, when weeds thrive.
Youll need a multi-step process here, with weed control that includes pre-emergent weed treatment in the spring, to battle weeds before they sprout broadleaf applications to hit dandelions and clover and spot treatments when pesky intruders sneak in.
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How To Select Grass
Beyond selecting a grass that will grow well giving your climatic conditions, there are some other things to consider like pH, fertility, soil moisture, and environmental stresses.
Some grasses will be more shade tolerant than others , while others are better at forming sod . Additionally, some grasses are better suited for very specific activitieslike bentgrass being used for a putting green or a croquet court.
When to plant grass can be found in our gardening guide!
Improve Your Mowing Technique
Many dont realize that there are optimal mowing heights. A trick to help keep your grass green in the summer is to let your blades of grass grow a little taller to prevent water from drying too quickly. To do this, set your mower to three inches or the highest setting and mow every two to three weeks. Your lawn will still look neat and well kept, the grass will be just a little taller than youre used to.
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Hot Weather Lawn Care Tips
Lawn care in hot weather is different from on cooler days. Its important to treat your grass a bit more gently and to avoid doing too much:
- Cut long. When you cut your grass during hot days, keep it long. A good general rule is to never cut more than one-third of the grass height. By keeping it longer, you allow the grass to develop stronger roots and a greater tolerance to heat and drought stress.
- Sharpen mower blades. Dull blades only stress grass more by damaging it. When blades are sharp, the grass will heal more quickly from each cut.
- Avoid mowing. In fact, its even better to avoid cutting the grass at all for a lawn in extreme heat or during a drought. Shady patches may be growing more and can be cut more frequently.
- Water deeply but infrequently. Overwatering grass wont help. It generally does better when soil is a little dry. During hot summer days, water your lawn deeply but not necessarily daily.
- Water in the morning. The heat of the day will evaporate water quickly, so water the lawn early in the morning. This will allow the soil and roots to soak up more.
- Dont fertilize. Avoid using fertilizers during the hottest part of the summer. Grass uses a lot of energy at this time of year, more than it produces. Fertilizing diverts that much-needed energy into new growth. This can lead to unnecessary stress.
- Keep foot traffic minimal. For already stressed grass, foot traffic can cause damage. Keep people off the lawn while the heat persists.
Expert Tips To Keep Your Lawn Green This Summer
Summers here and your grass is starting to turn a bit brown. Dont worry, youre not alone! Many homeowners find themselves battling against the heat every year to keep their lawn looking green and healthy. In this article, we will share with you our top 10 tips for keeping your lawn green in the summer sun!
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Feed Your Lawn With The Nutrients It Needs
Fertilising your lawn during summer will help it to remain nourished and healthy. The healthier the lawn, the less susceptible it is to weeds, insects and disease. Think of fertiliser as a booster shot for your grass, giving it added protection from the summer heat.
For best results, use a high-nitrogen fertiliser in early summer. Apply fertiliser as instructed for your lawn type to protect it from seasonal stress and keep it lush and green for those summer picnics.
Fertilize At The Right Time
Fertilizer is like food for your grass. Fertilizer at the right time is a three-course meal.
You want to use a slow-release fertilizer that gives plenty of nutrients over a long period of time.
The best time to fertilize is every six weeks at about midday.
You dont want to fertilize directly after mowing because the clippings mixed with fertilization could lead to mold or disease growing in your lawn.
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Watch For Wear And Tear
Your lawn can undergo added stress simply from everyday traffic. Children, animals, workers or vehicles can cause significant wear and tear on your grass and the ground underneath. Excess traffic can cause the structure of the plant to become damaged. If you notice damage from traffic on your lawn, be sure to avoid the damaged area until it has the opportunity to recover.
To avoid damage from regular wear and tear, overseed your lawn at the beginning of fall. This will help thicken the lawn for the next season and help repair damage from the current year as well.
Try A New Variety Of Grass
One way to achieve a healthy lawn is to know what type of turf you have. Most lawns are a mix of Perennial Rye, Kentucky Bluegrass and Fescue. Some turf becomes stressed when exposed to hot temperatures. If its healthy grass, it may be able to recover. But if its already experiencing stress from drought, mowing damage or insects and disease, it might not bounce back.
If you have an older lawn, it might be time to consider a more thorough renovation. Some older varieties of turf may not be able to handle the heat as well, while newer varieties are better equipped to cope with hot temperatures. It may be worthwhile to reseed your lawn with a new variety such as a Tall Fescue mix, which does well under the hot sun.
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The Key To Having A Great Lawn In Late Summer Is This
Dead grass scorched by the sun.
Common mistakes that can ruin even the best lawn care programs include mowing too low, watering too little or too much, or ignoring early signs of insects or disease.
This is especially true in late summer. August was especially hard on lawns. Northwest Indiana has had a third of the precipitation our yards need to be healthy.
The key to having a great green, healthy lawn is having the right season-long lawn program and getting the right advice. Your lawn is a living eco-system. Ignoring problems or not treating your lawn correctly may cause your yard to quickly lose that green, healthy look or even die in patches.
