Tips For Summer Lawn Care Maintenance

Question: Our Kentucky bluegrass really takes beating during the summer. How much should we water and fertilize? Do you have any lawn care maintenance tips you can offer? Marc, Franklin, Tennessee

Answer: Marc, summer is the real test for any Kentucky bluegrass-fescue lawn. No matter how well it thrives during cool weather, through the hot months protecting the turf from serious damage is about all that can be expected. Once warm weather arrives, opportunities for improving the lawn are limited, and treatments should be carefully chosen and administered, since carelessness may destroy the turf area already established.

Good Lawns Made in Spring and Fall

The most productive efforts toward maintaining a good lawn can be made in the spring and fall. Resolutions to fertilize and lime properly during those seasons are the best approach to summer enjoyment.

It is natural for Kentucky bluegrass and other cool-season grasses to turn rather yellow or brown when temperatures are high. Attempting to avoid this natural loss of color by fertilizing and watering throughout the summer may defeat the purpose by keeping the grass soft and more subject to disease and heat injury. It also encourages summer weeds such as crabgrass. The healthy lawn will not be injured permanently by typical summer weather, and the average lawn maker should relax rather than try such practices as regular watering throughout the season.

Reviving Lawns

While most lawns will revive after prolonged hot, dry periods, those in very sandy soils or warm exposures and ones closely clipped may be ruined unless judiciously watered. Water should be applied slowly and uniformly until it moistens the soil as deep as it is dried out. This amount should enable the grass to survive 7 to 10 days of additional hot, dry weather. Apply the water only as fast as it will enter the soil. For areas that absorb slowly, a soaker hose or some other irrigation device to control the flow may be necessary. The sod on compacted spots can be opened by cultivation with lawn aeration.

Fertilizing The Summer Lawn – Wait

For best results, fertilize the lawn in September and early spring. Fertilization during the warm weather of late spring and summer may help keep the grass green, but it encourages weeds and sometimes leads to serious turf damage. The experienced turf grower may recognize occasional need for summer fertilizing, but he too must exercise great care in fertilizing at this time.

Shaded Lanws

Shaded lawn areas or other problem spots may benefit from light applications of fertilizer during summer. However, beware of scorching the grass. For 1.000 square feet, 4 to 8 pounds of an 8-6-4, 5-10-5 or similar fertilizer might be spread and watered in without delay. Organic nitrogen fertilizers may be applied at slightly higher rates without watering. Or small amounts of soluble liquid fertilizer are sometimes applied as the lawn is watered.

Mowing The Lawn

High mowing is beneficial to shaded lawns since it permits more grass leaf area to remain for food production. Mowing closer than 1-1/2 inches may tax the grass plants so severely that they cannot survive the summer.

When grass nears the wilting stage it is particularly susceptible to injury from heavy traffic. Spreading the wear over the lawn helps avoid loss of grass and increases the service life of the turf.

With the best of care summer is likely to leave its disease, drought or crabgrass scars on the lawn, where even greater future troubles may start. Most lawns should be fertilized in late summer or early fall to encourage vigorous growth during the cool moist weather that follows. The amount of recovery a properly fertilized Kentucky bluegrass lawn can make in autumn is amazing.

In late summer also, reseed all bare areas or they are likely to revert to weeds next year. The right seed and correct fertilization are important. For the cool moist areas of the country. Kentucky bluegrass. Chewing’s or other red fescue and colonial bcntgrass are the main kinds of grass seed. Be sure the seed comes in contact with the soil even if this necessitates scarifying the bare spots and breaking through weeds and trashy litter at the surface. Turf cultivating tools, purchased or rented, may be useful for this purpose. The cool fall months give new seedlings plenty of time to prepare for the rigors of next year’s hot weather.