Summer is upon us. Soon, it’ll be July where the temperatures start to rise, and there’s less rain in the forecast.
How do you keep a healthy lawn during the dog days of summer?
Practicing smart lawn maintenance throughout the growing season will prepare and help your turf survive the hot, dry summer.
How to Prevent Grass from Burning in the Summer
You can prevent grass from burning during the summer by changing how you think about lawn care. Many homeowners scalp their lawn, dump too much fertilizer on it at the wrong time, and sprinkle their yard every night with water.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Lawns burn, die, or become covered in weeds. Most times, all three happen as the daytime temperatures rise and there is less rain.
Fortunately, you can take better care of your grass this summer, including not burning it, with the following tips:
- Grow the right grass at the right place on your property: If you want to keep a healthy lawn throughout the summer, you need to plant the right grass at the right place on your lawn.
For example, if you have a cool season lawn or use fescue grasses, make sure you plant them in shady spots. The only exception: tall fescue can handle full sun to some shade for temperate climates. Plus, it’s drought-tolerant.
Other cool season grasses, like Kentucky blue and ryegrass, thrive in full sun. Warm season grasses, such as Bermudagrass and zoysia, also do well in full sun if you live in a hotter climate.
- Aerate your soil at the right time of year. Core aeration keeps the dirt loose and opens it up to sunlight and oxygen.
Your healthy lawn will need aeration in the spring if it contains warm season grasses. If it’s a cool season lawn, you’ll need to aerate in the early fall.
Read more: What is Organic Gardening?
- Mow high rather than low: Raise your mower blades to take off only the top third of the grass plant when you mow.
Keep the turf on the high side, and the grass roots will be able to go deep into the soil to keep your healthy lawn green throughout the summer.
- Keep your lawn mower well-maintained: While you’ll do most of your mower maintenance during the winter months, so it’s ready for spring cutting, you still need to make sure that your mower blades are razor-sharp throughout the summer.
Dull mower blades cause tears in your turfgrass, which can invite insects and diseases to attack your turf.
- Do grass-cycling each time your mow: What’s grass-cycling? It’s when you use the mulching part of your mower to chop the grass into fine pieces.
You give your yard up to 25% more nitrogen (which means you can use fewer nitrogen fertilizers when you leave the grass clippings on the lawn). Mulched clippings will dissolve quickly back into the soil.
- Fertilize your grass with the right fertilizer at the right time: Cool season grasses only need fertilization every 6-8 weeks during the summer. On the other hand, warm season grasses need fertilization every 4-5 weeks.
You also want to consider slow-release nitrogen fertilizer that gradually breaks down over some time. Quick-release nitrogen will cause your grass to grow too quickly and develop shallow roots.
- Water your lawn 1” to 1½” per week: Water deeply and infrequently. Did you know that cool- and warm season lawns flourish when they only get 1” to 1½” of water per week?
Keep your healthy lawn green by only giving it a deep watering at one time. Too much or too little water stresses your turfgrass which causes it to thin and die.
- Invest in an in-ground irrigation system: If you have a medium- to a large-size yard, you can save money, time, and water by using an outdoor lawn sprinkler system.
Today’s irrigation systems have Bluetooth technology, moisture and weather sensors. And you control your sprinkler system with a tap on an app.
Since it’s best to water your yard between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., you can schedule that time before your turn off the light at night for your watering system to go off at dawn.
- Let your cool season grass go into dormancy: Since not every homeowner can afford to install a lawn irrigation system, you can use soaker hoses with timers to water your lawn.
However, cool season grasses do go dormant when there’s a long stretch of hot, dry days, and you won’t need to water your lawn while it’s in dormancy.
At that point, allow your lawn to turn brown because it’s not dead. Instead, a healthy lawn will bounce back once it starts to rain again and the temperatures get cooler.
Other Tips to Keep a Healthy Lawn Green in Summer Heat
If you employ the cultural management tips above, you’ll have a healthy lawn throughout the summer.
However, there are other tips to use for keeping your turf mean and green throughout the season:
- If you have a dog, you’ll have urine spots. You can reduce those spots by diluting your dog’s waste with water.
- Pick up litter, including leaves that fall after a heavy storm or the trash that blows into your yard.
Learn more: How to Stripe a Lawn
- Don’t park your car or allow too much foot traffic on your lawn. It compacts the soil.
- Use soil amendments, including compost, compost tea, and top dressing to nourish the soil and keep it from compaction.
How Brinly’s Lawn Care and Garden Attachments Help You Maintain a Healthy Lawn
At Brinly-Hardy, we have lawn care attachments that will help you keep a healthy lawn throughout the hottest days of the summer.
Check out our lawn maintenance equipment:
- Lawn dethatchers
- Spike and plug aerators
- Tow-behind carts
- Lawn sprayers
- Tow spreaders
- Lawn sweepers
- Push spreaders.
You can buy your next Brinly lawn care and garden attachment online. If you have any questions about your Brinly lawn care product, contact our customer service today by dialing 877-728-8224 or fill out our contact form.
Sources:
Bioadvanced.com, “Lawn Care: Keeping Lawns Healthy in Summer.”
Bovees.com, “How Often to Fertilize Lawn(s).”
KellogGarden.com, “Best Grass for Full Sun Yards.”
SpringgsBrothers.com, “Less Water More Green.”
TheDailyGardener.com, “8 Tips to Keep (the) Lawn Green in Summer Heat.”
