Summer Lawn Care

With the end of June fast approaching summer’s heat has begun to descend upon us. The rainy days of April and May are fading to a distant memory. Your lawn is probably still revelling in it’s spring time glory, but a swift decline could occur without proper maintenance. With heat, back yard parties, kids and dogs running all over your yard it can really take a toll. Some basic care will ensure it looks glorious all summer.

Watering

It may sound simple but it’s the most critical factor in a fresh green lawn. Water is a valuable resource and should not be overused so keep waterings to a twice weekly maximum. The key is to water early in the morning and deeply. Your lawn needs 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water a week. So you might be asking, how long will that take? A good way to measure is to place various tuna cans in the path of your sprinkler system and run your sprinkler for approximately 1 hour then measure the amount of water collected, adjust accordingly. (example: If you irrigate for 1 hour and have a 1/2″ in most of the cans you will need to run your irrigation for 2 hours to achieve 1″)

Control the environment

Hopefully you have already fertilized and if you haven’t, get on it! You should do your last big fertilize before the real summer temperatures arrive as it can be too much for already heat stressed grasses. More likely you should be focusing on weed and pest control at this time. Ask the experts at Ridgeview about available pest control options. There are great natural solutions like nematodes!

Mow gently

Your lawn is already getting the green kicked out of it so the least you can do is baby it a little. Raise your blades in the summer to approximately 3”. It’s also a bit counter intuitive but you should be mowing more frequently as this way you are only approximately 1/3 of the grass blade at a time. Finally keep those blades samurai worthy.