Summer may be a fun time for us… but it can be harsh on your grass! High summer temperatures and humidity, aggressive weeds, and pests commonly cause a decline in lawn appearance and health this time of year. Keep an eye out for browning, crunchy texture, wilting, and curling – these are all telltale signs of stress. Below are some recommendations to ensure your lawn doesn’t get to this point.

tips & Tricks

1. Water: Your lawn needs a minimum of 1 inch of water per week. If Mother Nature does not provide this, it’s time to set up some sprinklers! During the summer, it is more important to give your lawn a deep soaking. Instead of running your sprinklers for 20 minutes per day, try every other day for a minimum of an hour. This way, water will seep deeper into the soil, encouraging deeper grass root growth. Water in the early morning to avoid evaporation and disease promotion caused by late-day watering.

2. Mow your lawn high: Keep your grass at least 3 inches long. The taller your grass blades are, the softer, cooler grass you have to run your toes through, and the better the chances of your lawn’s survival. A taller grass blade has more surface area and provides more shade for the grass below, therefore, the ability to retain moisture is better. Also, don’t mow your lawn if the temperature is over 90 degrees!

3. Let the clippings fall: Grass is approximately 80% water. If you leave the clippings on the lawn, they give back moisture and act as a “green” fertilizer, providing a gentle Nitrogen feed for your lawn.

4. Keep your mower blades sharp: Believe it or not, the sharper your mower blades, the softer the grass will be. Grass cut by dull mower blades is more vulnerable to diseases and drying out. Don’t mow off more than a third of a grass blade at a time. If you mow off more, you will stress out your lawn, making it much more susceptible to burnout.

5. Treat for grubs: Breaking the Japanese beetle life cycle starts with grub control. Grubs will be hatching and lurking beneath your feet, eating the roots of your lovely lawn. Don’t wait! Apply Bayer’s Season Long Grub Control through mid-August. Be sure to water it in or apply it before heavy rainfall. The more rain it gets, the better it works.

6. Fertilize: Give your lawn, a non-burning summer feed! Milorganite is a great choice. It is organic, non-burning, and has Iron for quick green-up. Espoma also makes a nice, organic Summer Revitalizer, perfect for this summer heat.

7. Green Up: Boost the appearance of your lawn with Earth Science’s Fast-Acting Iron or Iron Pro! We recommend these because they will not stress out your grass during the summer heat and work in just days without burning or staining.

Product Recommendations

Summer Fertilizer

Apply after the hottest time of summer (around Labor Day)

Apply in July/August

Apply around
Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving

Best applied in August/September

Grub Treatment

Apply Spring, Summer, and Fall when grub issues appear

Apply anytime from spring through late summer

Organic option, best applied late July or early August, but can be used in spring & fall

Other

Apply anytime during the growing season for a greener lawn

2x Iron for even quicker green-up!

It’s June, and your gloriously green, spring lawn, may not be looking quite as vibrant right now. So let’s do something about it! It’s time to give your lawn a little boost. As the weather turns hot, the cool-season grasses in our lawns start to suffer and could use a little of your help to look and feel better. When working on your lawn, just a few things to keep in mind:

• Small patch seeding only! Don’t take on big seeding projects this time of the year. If you do, you’ll have to water so much you won’t have time to enjoy your super green lawn. Only do small, manageable, bare patches of seeding.

• Keep the lawn mowed as high as you can tolerate. Never let that mower dip below 3 inches. The higher the lawn is, the less chance of burnout in the summer heat.

• You are either all in or all out. Meaning if you’re going to water in the summer months, commit to it. No piddly amounts of water will do. If you are only going to give your lawn shot glasses full of water, then do not bother at all. Just let it go dormant and take a little summer rest.

If at least a month has passed, since your last lawn fertilization, it’s time to get out there and do it again. Here’s the good news, there are many choices to fit your lawn’s needs.

• If your lawn is just looking a little tired, not quite as green, and not overrun with weeds, you could stick to fertilizer. Not just any ordinary fertilizer, but one that contains iron. Iron is great when applied in the month of June. It adds strength, vigor, and deep green color to our lawns, making them look better through the hot summer months ahead. Grab yourself a bag of Summer Revitalizer by Espoma or Milorganite.

• If you recently fertilized your lawn within the last four weeks but you still want that nice green color that iron gives you, then you can apply Fast Acting Iron by Earth Sciences. Talk about green!

• If your lawn is crying out for the nice green color iron adds to it, but still has quite a few weeds popping up, then the perfect combination would be one of the above fertilizers with a bottle of liquid weed control. You can choose a synthetic, such as Bonide’s Weed Beater Ultra plus Crabgrass and Broadleaf Weed Killer, or a natural, such as Weed Beater Fe. You’ll get a wider range of weed control with this synthetic choice but it is nice to know that a natural choice exists.

• Don’t forget the grub control this month. The new, hungry batch of grubs have not hatched yet but they will be soon and you want to be prepared. It is time to put down Grub Ex. Be sure to water it in or put it down before a rainfall to be most effective. If natural is the way for you, then you can put down Milky Spore to help keep those damaging critters at bay.

• If inevitably, each summer, your lawn is plagued with the summertime disease, now is the time to be proactive and put Bonide‘s Infuse Fungicide down. Be sure to water in and you may even consider a second application in 10 days.

Summer is on its way and this is the time we will want to enjoy our lawns the most. Give them a June boost now for the best summer lawn ahead! Happy Gardening!