By Richard Greene
If you aren't too careful, you can go overboard with your summertime lawn maintenance. The reason is because during the hottest months of July and August, grasses can become semi-dormant. This makes the grasses more vulnerable. If you want to keep your lawn fresh and green during these hot months ahead, then there are certain things you can do to encourage this.
The first thing to remember is, don't stress your lawn. Your grass doesn't grow as much during the summer, being in a semi-dormant state, so less mowing is commanded. Keeping the blades on your lawn mower sharpened will give you a clean cut of around 2'' to 2.5'' on your grass height. You don't want your grass getting to tall during the summer, but if it does, don't cut it all down at one time. Instead, take it in steps, cutting it down gradually, little by little.
During extreme heat or drought, your grass runs the danger of losing its moisture through the grass tips. Stress to your lawn can also come from the wheels of your lawn mower, as well as lots of foot-traffic from people barbecuing and playing games on the lawn. This can lead to required lawn maintenance during the fall season in order to repair the damage.
How often do you need to be watering your lawn during the summer months? Many people think it needs to be done often. But with good lawn maintenance throughout the rest of the year, watering during the summer months could be kept down to an acceptable minimum. Now, when you do water, if you don't want to lose grass during the hot months of summer, then the best time to do your watering is in the early hours of the day. Doing this will allow the water the chance to evaporate during the day and prevent damage to your lawn. For those of you who are using an irrigation system to water your lawn, you'll want to moisten the ground down to about four inches. But remember too that your local government may have water destruction policies and ordinances in place where you live, to prevent water shortage, especially during a drought season.
Problems with insects are to be treated as needed. But you need to properly evaluate any insect infestation to be certain of implementing the right treatment for whatever insect problem has arisen on your lawn. It might be necessary to call in professionals if your infestation is a major one.
If you grass becomes diseased somehow, then there is not much you could do but want to take care of it in the late summer or early fall. You will need to repair your lawn, and most likely even replace it at that point.
Weed infestation can be helped by herbicides or even hand-weeding. Be sure if you choose hand-weeding as your method that you get down to the rest of the problem, otherwise you will not regain control of your lawn from these weeds.
Fertilizing your lawn during the summer is not a good idea. Doing this activity during the hot days of summer will suck out precious moisture, making your lawn susceptible to heat and drought conditions. Instead, wait until the fall season to add fertilizer to your lawn. The best kind of fertilizer to use is one that will slowly release nutrients into the soil throughout the search.
Remember that good lawn care doesn't happen in one day. If you plan properly and utilize the summer lawn maintenance techniques discussed here, you will have a lush, green lawn that will be enjoyed not only during the summer months, but all year long.
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Source:www.isnare.com |
