Water Deeply And Infrequently
Dry, hot weather can deplete your soil moisture. Moisture stress can lead to wilted grass blades, reduced shoot and root growth, and greater susceptibility to pests and weeds.
To combat this, you should water thoroughly about once or twice a week, so long as your region isnt experiencing any drought conditions that call for water restrictions. The water should reach 46 inches deep. If youre unsure, push a screwdriver into your soil. If you meet a lot of resistance, you need to water more. If it slides in too easily, you need to water less.
Its best to water your lawn in the early morning, before sunrise if you can. Thatll keep the sun from drying out the moisture before your lawn is able to soak it up. Pay attention to weather forecastsyou dont want to water too much on weeks when it will rain.
Preparing For Summer Lawn Care
When making a summer lawn care plan, its best to think of the season in phases: Early, mid, and late summer. How you care for your lawn varies according to the phase. Each phase includes the basics of fertilizing, watering, and mowing.
However, in the early summer, you will also treat your lawn for summer pests and weeds. You or your lawn care company should apply weed control only as needed. This will ensure you kill the weeds without harming the surrounding grass. Additionally, you will need to be on the lookout for pests seen in the summer months. Proper identification of lawn pests such as grubs and turf caterpillars is important to protect your lawn. Keep an eye out for feeding symptoms throughout the summer. If you see unusually high feeding activity or if your lawn begins to wilt in patches or form bare patches, it could be signs of an insect infestation.
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 Care For Your Lawn In Extreme Heat
Jul 8, 2018 | Lawn Care |
Does sitting outside in the extreme heat of summer stress you out? Youre not alone! Extreme heat stresses out your lawn also! The lack of water and unbearable heat can wreak havoc on your lawn. What can you do to make sure your lawn has a stress free summer? Check out these 10 tips to care for your lawn in extreme heat.
1. Dont Cut Too Short
Cutting your grass too short limits your plants ability to produce energy for growth. When grass is cut to a proper height it develops stronger roots that allow for more support and make them more tolerant of stress.
2. Stick To The 1/3 Rule
When cutting your grass in the heat, try to stick to the 1/3 Rule: Never remove more than 1/3 of grass height at one time. By sticking to this rule, your lawn is kept cooler because less plant tissue is removed. This allows your lawn to thrive and avoid stress.
3. Limit Watering
4. Dont Mow In A Drought
Try to avoid mowing during the stress of a drought. Lawns have limited capabilities to recover from mowing during drought and it can actually cause even more damage. During a drought, try to mow after a rainfall or after an irrigation day. Try to resist mowing while the grass is still wet to avoid clumping.
5. Sharpen Mower Blades
6. Dont Bag Clippings
If possible, use a mulching mower so clippings can be returned to your lawn. Clippings can actually act as a slow-release fertilizer as they decompose on your lawn and can be quite beneficial to your lawns health.
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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Start Planning For A New Lawn
Sowing a new lawn in the summer can be a challenge due to the drier soil conditions, but with good planning and watering it is perfectly achievable.
What Is Top Dressing And When And How Should It Be Applied
- Top dressing is a mixture of well-balanced organic matter and weed-free soil. A thin layer should be spread on established lawns between and , if necessary. Its applied to level an uneven surface or help a lawn recover after a serious disease or a very cold winter by replenishing nutrients.
- Buffalo grass, LM and all cool season lawns dont tolerate lawn dressing at all. If the lawn needs to be leveled, remove the areas of uneven grass carefully, level the soil and replace the old lawn.
- The amount of top dressing you use depends on your lawn type, but as a rule of thumb, the recommendation is to cover 100m² of lawn with 1m³ of sterilised lawn dressing.
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Prune Your Trees Regularly
Summer weather in Pittsburgh is unpredictable. It’s not uncommon for late afternoons to bring heavy winds and rain. If the branches of your trees are weak, it won’t take much wind for them to blow off. Lightning strikes can also be a problem. Protect your trees by removing dead branches and thinning out top branches on a regular basis. Then, brace or cable weaker branches to keep them safe from storms.
How To Water Your Lawn When Temperatures Are High
Watering your lawn is one of the most important maintenance measures to consider all year round, and particularly in summer when there is often little natural rainfall. As a rule of thumb for lawn care, you need to supply approximately 20 to 25 l of water per square metre per week depending on sunlight, heat levels and wind.
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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.
Water Your Lawn Correctly
Watering your lawn correctly and with the right frequency will ensure its healthy and stays strong, particularly during the dry season.Your lawns watering needs depends on the type of grass you have, the soil, and how much rainfall you get. But, there are still good watering practices you can follow to get the most out of it.
- Watering should be done only when the lawn really needs it watering too often and with too little water trains the roots to stay close to the surface, with no way to get moisture during dry periods.
- When watering, you should focus on slow and deep watering, which will train the roots down. Try to utilize a trickling water method, soaking the lawn slowly and completely.
- The best time to water is early in the morning, to reduce irrigation. When your lawn needs watering, it will have a blue-gray tint and older blades will begin to curl. Also, footprints will stay on for longer than usual. If the grass doesnt spring back to life after removing your foot, but takes a few seconds to lift up, its time to water.
By following these simple steps to Southern California lawn care, you can have a lawn that stays green and healthy all year. If you have any other questions about your lawn or wish to speak with a designer, simply fill out our instant estimate form or give us a call at 293-5921.
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Seeding Or Sodding Your Lawn
Overseeding may be needed to increase the density of your lawn. A dense lawn has fewer weeds and is healthier.
Pests, extreme weather conditions and neglect can also damage lawns, even when the soil is in good condition.
If your lawn is a little thin, proper mowing, fertilizing and watering may be all it needs. If that doesnât help, overseeding with a quality lawn seed may be the answer.
Choosing your seed
Choose a grass seed high in Fescue content and low in Kentucky Blue content , remembering to use cool season varieties.
Select a seed mixture that is high in physical seed attributes, such as purity and germination, and also contains the best composition of grass for the use intended.
Soil fertility, moisture availability, sunlight levels and traffic affect the tyope of blend that will provide the best results for your yard.
Look to sow your lawn with a blend of grass seed varieties. Check our local nurseries and garden centres in Calgary for drought tolerant blends of lawn seed.
Adding seed to your lawn
Before you spread the seed over the thin areas, make sure there will be good soil-to-seed contact, and rake away any dead grass or debris.
Dethatchers, aerators or vertical mowers can also be used to prepare the lawn prior to overseeding.
Time your overseeding with a day before rain. Donât do before a hot weather forecast. The seed will need water to germinate.
Apply 900 grams per 1,000 square feet or more if the lawn is thin .
Using sod for your lawn
Get Lawn Care Services In Pasadena Md
Not everyone has time to pay attention to the details of their summer lawn care, and thats okay. There are professional lawn care services in Pasadena MD that can pay attention to those details for you. The experts at Precision Landscaping, for example, can take a look at your yard, give you ideas and recommendations, and even bring it back around to health for you so you have much less to worry about as the summer months come to an end.
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Avoid Watering In The Middle Of The Day
Avoid watering at midday when it is very hot because more than 75% of the water could evaporate before it even penetrates the ground. Focus on watering during the cooler hours of the day, either early in the morning or early evening. This way your lawn will easily absorb water and you will reduce the risk of fungal diseases
What Is Scarifying And Aerating
- These two practices involve removing dead root material from a lawn and ventilating the root system in the growing season when the underlying thatch becomes a visible problem.
Aeration is carried out to enable air to get to the roots. It aids drainage and also allows water, minerals and nutrients to reach the roots. Its done by using a spike roller, fork or a hollow tining machine to punch holes into the soil.
Scarifying is a process where a rotary-type mower is used to cut into the soil. Bolts or pins are fitted to the rotary blade and the mower is then set to its lowest setting. This is followed with an application of fertiliser and lawn booster.
Scarifying puts the lawn under stress as it is torn rather than cut. This can make it susceptible to disease and there is the possibility of cutting the live root system. An alternative is to get a professional to dethatch or verti-cut your lawn. That is to remove the zone of dead grass roots that builds up below the soil surface. This process rips into the grass vertically, tearing into the roots and cutting them vertically, leaving a lot of roots intact to immediately start growing.
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How Often Should I Mow And At What Height
- Mowing is one of the greatest ways to bring out the best in virtually any lawn. If a lawn grows really fast and there is a lot of leaf development and growth then you may have to mow your lawn more than once a week.
- The biggest mistake made in lawn care is cutting the lawn too short. Its important never to cut off more than 1/3 of the leaf blade in one go and also to keep mower blades sharp.
- Keep kikuyu at a height of 46cm above ground. Finer grasses such as cynodon, at a height of 34cm. LM lawn and cool season lawns at a height of 57cm. This results in deeper roots which are more capable of surviving dry spells.
Deal With Insects And Bugs
Insect pests can cause extensive damage to your lawn if you do not put in place measures to curb their influence. Fire ants are among some of the insects that may spell doom for the health of your grass and beauty of the lawn. Use of appropriate insecticides during spring will give you very little to worry about. Grubs and crickets are best dealt with during summer. Our Sir Walter DNA certified turf is resistant to pests and may not require extensive use of herbicides. You can buy Sir Walter buffalo grass online from Anco Turf.
Proper maintenance of your lawn in spring and summer provides exceptional beauty to your lawn through this period. You wont shy away from having friends over, and the feel of the grass under your feet will be impeccable. For more information, get in touch with us today at .
Are there any other spring and summer lawn care tips that you are aware of? Share with us in the comments section and keep the conversation going. Also, be sure to share this post on your social media pages.
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Summer Lawn Care Guide
Summer is a maintenance season for lawns.
If spring lawn care is about getting your lawn healthy and green, summer lawn care is about KEEPING it healthy while temperatures soar and rainfall becomes a fleeting memory. Its also about maintaining a lawn that can withstand all the barbecues, games, parties, and running feet that summer has to offer. Here are some tips for keeping your lawn in shape over those long, hot days of summer.
Here Are Some Great Summer Lawn Care Tips:
Mowing Your Lawn.
While this may sound simple enough here are 4 tips to get optimal results from your lawn this summer:
Irrigation.
Just as mowing, this sounds simple enough. Lets enhance your efforts.
The amount that your lawn needs water is directly related to the weather conditions, soil drainage and the amount of sun that your lawn gets daily. The best rule of thumb to follow if you get lost is, your lawn will need at least one inch of water per week. So use a rain gauge and make sure that your lawn stays properly hydrated.
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Choosing A Lawn Care Company
If you don’t want to do it yourself, there are many companies that maintain lawns and control pests. Some may include services marketed as organic or pesticide-free.
To choose the option best for you:
- Find out what programs and prices companies in your area offer, and what results you can expect.
- Avoid lawn care programs that apply pesticides even when pests are not present.
- If pesticides are used, make sure that they are used as part of an Integrated Pest Management program.
