06 Jul Home Tip of the Week: 4 ways to keep your lawn hydrated this summer!
Summer is heating up! Not only do you need to hydrate yourself, but your lawn needs some TLC as well. Here are a few important maintenance tips to think about when approaching your lawn watering techniques this summer!
Summer Lawn Watering Tips:
- Make sure your lawn gets at least 1 inch of water per week.
- Water early in the day to allow more water to reach the root zone and to reduce evaporation and fungal growth.
- When you do water your lawn, do so thoroughly but infrequently so moisture soaks down to the roots. Overwatering depletes water supply and makes plants prone to insect problems and adds to stormwater runoff, which pollutes water systems. (Exceptions are newly sodded lawns that lack roots)
- If water is scarce, consider allowing cool-season grasses to go dormant (at rest, temporarily inactive) for the summer. In consistent extreme heat allow your lawn to naturally slow down growth. Do not rotate back and forth between letting your lawn become dormant to watering it with excessive amounts of water. This can actually drain large amounts of food reserves from the plant.
Grass Types:
- Cool-season grasses (such as fescue, bluegrass, and rye) grow best when temperatures are in the 60s F.
- Warm-season grasses (including Zoysia, St. Augustine, Centipede, and Bermuda) like temperatures in the 70s.
