The long, hot summers can be like torture for your lawn. The summer heat and improper lawn maintenance can make the lawn yellow and weak, and weeds, insects, and diseases can easily penetrate. The best way to deal with a summer lawn crisis is to prevent it before it happens.
“Most homeowners don’t realize that they’re dealing with what happened a month ago,” said Doug Fender, executive director of the Lawn Resource Center, an Illinois nonprofit. “They see the symptoms and treat the lawn, but it will take another month for the symptoms to go away. They didn’t think about treatments that could prevent it.”
To avoid summer problems, start tending to your lawn early in the growing season. The best precaution is to have a lush and lush lawn. It protects against weeds, insects, and diseases better than any other measure.
Early Season Care
For warm-climate (Bermuda, St. Augustine) and cool-climate (Kentucky grass, fescue, perennial ryegrass) grasses, it is best to aerate and fertilize the lawn in late May and June before the grass begins to grow. Don’t fertilize cool-climate grasses until autumn and apply nitrogen to warm-climate grasses monthly throughout the growing season.
Sharpen the lawn mower blades in the spring so that the grass is cut cleanly and not shredded. This will help prevent disease. Only one-third of the grass blades are cut off when mowing and gradually increase the height of the mower by 25 to 50 percent as the temperature rises. Do not mow cool-climate lawns below 2 to 2-1/2 inches, and warm season lawns should be 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches tall when temperatures are above 80 degrees.
Use sprinklers or underground systems early in the morning to water evenly, deeply, and infrequently. Your lawn should receive a total of 1 inch of water per week, including rain and irrigation. Take out six cans the size of tuna and check if it’s even. See how long it takes for water to fill each jar and correct the system if some jars receive more water than others. Another test that Fender recommends is to insert a screwdriver into the ground: if it’s easy to insert, the water level is good, and if it’s not smooth, it’s normal. If pushing is difficult, pour longer, deeper water.
Mid-Season Care
If you live in a hot, dry climate, cold-season grass will lie dormant and turn brown in mid-summer. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unless there is a prolonged drought, the lawn will return to normal once the weather turns cool and rains.
If you really want to keep your lawn green during the hot summer months, spray your lawn with an inch of water every week (unless nature helps you). The worst way to do this is to let the grass dormant, then water it long enough to start growing, and then let it lie dormant again.
Let the grass grow longer during the warmer months. The extra shade helps keep the root area cool and reduces soil moisture loss. Do not fertilize or use herbicides at this time.
Late-Season Treatment
In the north, if you choose to use chemical control methods, early to mid-autumn is the best season to remove lawn weeds. Most weeds are stockpiling food to survive the winter, when they will be more likely to absorb chemicals.
Cutting your lawn a little shorter in the fall will help the ground dry faster the following spring. However, the length of the cut should not be shorter than the recommended range.
If you live in the north, you can fertilize at any time of the fall. It’s also a good time to aerate the soil, making it easier for water and air to get underground.
Get an Up-Close Look at the Lawn
Despite your best efforts early in the season, the lawn may still have summer issues. Here are some common problems and how to deal with them.
Weeds: When you scan your lawn, if weeds are noticeable, then they are a problem. If there were weeds last year, spray herbicides in late April and May. Don’t use a lot of herbicides of any kind in the summer, that’s when your lawn is most exposed to heat stress. It is still possible to manually remove any weeds, such as broadleaf dandelions, clovers, and chickweeds, as well as grassy weeds, including horsetail and annual grass. For larger areas (not the entire lawn), use herbicide to treat any issues locally. Soap herbicides are less toxic than other herbicides.
Irregular brown patches: Prone to lawn debris is a symptom of grubs, which are the larval stages of beetles that eat grass roots. Pull out a section of grass and check the soil for white larvae. If you see larvae, nail 2 inches of soil deep in the soil in early fall, or use a special larval insecticide sold at the nursery to kill the larvae.
Moss: Compacted, shady, acidic soils with drainage issues are suitable for moss takeovers. Rake moss out as soon as you find it, or use a moss killer sold at the nursery. Reseed in the fall in the bare area, or spread the turf in the spring or fall.
Other strange patterns or brownish-yellow spots: It can be difficult to diagnose a problem with your lawn if it’s a disease, an insect, some sort of weed, or a next-door neighbor’s dog coming to your lawn. Bring 2×2-inch pieces of grass and soil to your local nursery or cooperative extension service and ask staff to identify the problem and address it. Inspect the entire lawn so that any unusual patterns or colors can be described.