06/24/2022
How does hotter weather fare with your lawn? Our lawns are made up predominantly of cool season plants (including most plants that are also growing in your garden), meaning they grow best and are much healthier in cooler temperatures over high heat. This is quite noticeable as our lawns begin rapidly growing in the spring which we discussed lots on in earlier postings, and can also be observed when we get further into our fall season.
Given the fact that our lawns prefer cool weather over high heat is a large reason why we perform our renovation services such as aerations and overseeding in the spring and fall only. During the summer months, the lawn is under quite a bit of stress which automatically makes it more susceptible to competition from various weeds and diseases. By disturbing the lawn at that fragile time of year, it can have a substantial negative effect to the lawn’s overall health in the summer, causing an even lower resilience percentage to its stressors. Our field team has noticed many dry lawns in the past two weeks as a result of the ongoing heat and improper watering practices throughout this time.
As you may already know, we always like to ask our customers how often they water their lawn during the year. The most common answer we receive back is ‘oh it rained this week so I skipped watering’ or ‘oh it’s been very hot so i’ve been watering it every other day’. It is extremely important to water no more than twice per week and no less than once per week. During hot dry temperatures, increase the volume of water applied, not the frequency.
As we continue to make our way through the summer please remember that our main focus right now is maintaining the lawn best we can by keeping up with a regular fertilizer schedule, deep and infrequent watering, and frequent mowing no shorter than 3 inches. Keeping the grass blades set high will ensure more shade is provided to the soil keeping it cooler, and your grass (as you now know), happier. Since we cannot control the temperatures we receive throughout the week it is key to control what you can to help your lawn manage through its uncontrollable environment.
If you have any additional questions about your lawns condition throughout this heat, feel free to reach out to one of our team members for some expert advice anytime.
