Simple Ways to Keep Your Lawn Green Through the Summer
Summer heat in Burlington County can turn a healthy lawn brown fast. This article walks through the basic habits that keep grass green when the weather gets hot and dry.
Water Deep and Not Too Often
The biggest mistake homeowners make is watering a little bit every day. Light daily watering keeps the roots shallow, which makes grass weak when heat sets in. Instead, water deeply a couple of times a week so the moisture soaks several inches into the soil. This trains the roots to grow down where the soil stays cooler and holds water longer. The best time to water is early morning, before the sun gets strong. Watering at night can leave grass damp for hours, which invites fungus and disease.
Mow High and Keep Blades Sharp
Cutting your grass too short is one of the fastest ways to stress it in summer. Longer grass shades its own roots and the soil, so the ground stays cooler and holds moisture better. Raise your mower deck and leave the grass around three inches tall during the hottest months. A dull mower blade tears the grass instead of cutting it clean. Torn tips turn brown and lose more water, so sharpen the blade at least once a season.
Feed the Soil and Leave the Clippings
Grass needs nutrients to stay green, but heavy feeding in the middle of summer can burn a stressed lawn. Focus most of your fertilizing on spring and fall, and go light during peak heat. When you mow, let the clippings fall back onto the lawn instead of bagging them. They break down quickly and return nutrients and moisture to the soil. Healthy soil with some organic matter holds water better, which means your grass suffers less during dry stretches.
Deal With Weeds and Bare Spots Early
Weeds compete with your grass for water and nutrients, and they often handle heat better than turf does. Pulling or treating them before summer keeps your lawn from thinning out. Bare or thin spots dry out and turn brown fastest because there is nothing to shade the soil. Reseeding those areas is usually better done in early fall when temperatures cool, but keeping existing grass thick and healthy now will help crowd weeds out.
Know When Grass Is Just Dormant
Sometimes a brown lawn is not dead, just sleeping. Many cool season grasses go dormant in extreme heat to protect themselves and green back up when rain and cooler weather return. If you decide to let a lawn go dormant, keep foot traffic light and give it a small amount of water every couple of weeks so the roots survive. Trying to force a dormant lawn back to green with heavy watering during a heat wave often wastes water and does little good.
Water deep and early, mow high with a sharp blade, feed at the right times, and stay ahead of weeds. These simple habits do most of the work in keeping a lawn green through a hot summer.