Managing a lawn during scorching weather
Unfortunately when a drought hits watering your yard is quickly banned to save water. If grass doesn’t get at least an inch of water per week it begins to die back. My lawn and yard service can cure all these problems for you, but there are a few tricks to keep your grass looking as healthy as possible during these times.
Adding Microbial Soil Agents will help your lawn endure by providing fungal spores which modifies the soil to allow it to retain moisture. It also acts as an insulator like when you add hay to your vegetable garden.
Stopping the use of fertilizers during this time is also essential. We don’t want to encourage the grass to grow too much because growth requires water. Growing slower will also encourage hardier growth which will benefit the plant in the long run.
Keeping a rain barrel or water butt allows you to store water for a non rainy day. It’s quite easy to set one up so your gutters feed into it to give you the most water possible. You can then use it sparingly on your lawn at dusk.
As I said in a previous post, letting your grass grow that little bit longer will enable it to grow its roots. This will allow access to any water underground within reach of the root. Cutting the grass short with severely limit the roots reach.
These methods won’t work miracles, but in my experience they will help to keep your lawn looking beautiful whatever the weather.
Lawn Strategy
Would you believe there is such a thing as a Lawn Strategy? Well there is when you run a lawn service.
It’s based on the planning ahead of your lawn care to ensure it is ready for heavier use in good weather.
For instance, all plants balance their root mass with their shoot mass. Meaning if you cut your grass too short then the roots will only grow to the same length. This will decrease the plants ability to reach water underground.
Ideally for the hotter weather like here on Space Coast you need between 1″ and 3″ to maintain a healthy plant or lawn. If you want your lawn to be short enough to practice your golf on then you will need to water it regularly. The best time to do this is at dusk. Then the water doesn’t get evaporated and has the opportunity to sink into the ground before the next day.
You also need to consider your fertilizer. An iron rich one will give you a nice deep green, while being rich in nitrogen will allow you to avoid a too lush top growth. Magnesium forms part of the chlorophyll which allows the plant to turn sunlight into energy. There are also organic fertilizers which will achieve the same aim.
Fertilizing your lawn little and often will make my job of cutting much easier and give you a much better end result. Once the fertilizer runs out then the plant dies back a little. Doing it little and often will minimize this effect, giving you a much better result.