How to Take Care of Your Lawn in the Summer

Proper care for your lawn in the summer will keep it looking beautiful despite the heat.

Caring for your lawn properly in the summer is essential to ensuring green, healthy grass. The extreme heat and lack of rainfall that are common in the summer months can damage your lawn and even kill the grass. Following the right procedures for summer lawn care will be the difference between a well-manicured, healthy lawn and dying, brown grass.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Slow-release fertilizer
• Empty tuna can
• Lawn mower

1. Fertilize your lawn about 30 days before the hot summer temperatures arrive. Use a slow-release fertilizer that contains a low amount of nitrogen. Follow the instructions carefully for applying the fertilizer. Improperly fertilizing your lawn in the summer can result in the grass becoming burnt.

2. Water your lawn properly. The heat from the summer makes the water evaporate more quickly, so your grass will need more water to really reach the roots. Sit an empty tuna can out near your sprinkler to measure how much you are watering. Your lawn needs about 1 inch of water per week to stay healthy in the heat of the summer. Water in the early morning rather than the middle of the day or at night.

3. Keep kids' swimming pools and other plastic water toys, like Slip 'n Slides, off the lawn. These things smother the grass, which can cause brown spots or even kill it.

4. Mow your grass to the right length. If you have Bermuda or zoysia grasses -- typically found in the south -- keep the grass between 1 ½ and 2 inches long. Other southern grasses, like St. Augustine and centipede, as well as northern grasses, like ryegrass, bluegrass and tall fescue, should be kept at about 2 ½ to 3 ½ inches. Rather than mowing your lawn on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule, mow it on an as-needed basis according to the height of the grass. Mow the lawn in the early morning or in the evening rather than during the hottest part of the day, when moisture is most likely to be lost.

5. Recycle your grass clippings back into your lawn. Don't bag your clippings, but instead mulch them back into the grass. Doing so provides organic nutrition for your lawn.

6. Tackle weeds at first sight. Use a spot-treatment weed-control product designed for use on lawns, and use the product sparingly to avoid burning the grass. Pulling weeds out by hand is also effective and less detrimental to the grass.

References

• DannyLipford.com; Summer Lawn Care Guide; Julie Day
• Spring-Green: Summer Lawn Care
• All About Lawns; The Do's and Don'ts of Summer Lawn Care; Dawn West; August 2006