Beat the Heat: How to Keep Your Lawn Healthy in the Summer 

 

Summer is that time of the year that you want your lawn to look its best. It is that time when you need lawn care the most because your lawn undergoes much stress from the scorching sun and hot temperatures. These two elements of the summer weather are always a threat to your lush green grass. Additionally, your lawn faces another threat from the increased traffic by family, kids, and pets. All these stresses combined cause much wear and tear to the lawn, leaving your once sea of green gradually fading into brown. 

 

While it is quite normal for the summer to be hot and dry, it is not a must that your lawn turns brown. Some homeowners are comfortable with letting their lawns turn brown and going dormant over the summer. There is no problem at all as it is only natural that the grass would preserve itself until cooler temperatures resume. However, it is a better look for your lawn if it stays green all summer. Moreover, the process of keeping it green is not complicated in any way. It only requires some strategic summer lawn care practices that will allow you to keep your lawn lush all summer. 

 

What Causes the Brown in Your Lawn?

 

It is essential first to understand why your lawn loses its color before you know how to keep it green.  

 

Watering plays a vital role in keeping your grass green and lush. However, it is not always the reason why the lawn turns brown. The weather leading up to the summer is always cool and wet. But as soon as summer begins, the weather dramatically changes to hot and dry. Such a rapid change causes the ground to dry up quickly, and the plants become water-stressed. As a survival mechanism, the plants go dormant and turn brown to preserve themselves.  

 

As you can see, brown grass does not necessarily mean unhealthy grass. There is no need to panic when you suddenly see patches of brown in your yard. The grass has simply inactivated itself due to unsuitable climatic conditions. Once suitable conditions resume, it would quickly bounce back to life. 

 

Nonetheless, other factors that contribute to your lawn losing its color include:

 

  • Poor watering practices 
  • Poor mowing practices 
  • Insect or disease attacks 
  • Excess traffic

 

Keep Your Lawn Green with these Summer Lawn Care Tips

 

There are several steps you can follow to ensure that your lawn survives even the harshest of summer days. It is not complicated to keep a heat resistant lawn. Just make sure that you adhere to these tips with consistency, and you are guaranteed that your lawn will remain lush all summer. 

 

1. Plant the right grass

 

Ask any Santa Cruz landscaping expert and they will tell you that there are many varieties of grass that exist. Among these varieties, there are two distinct categories, cool-season, and hot-season grasses. The cool-season grasses perform well in the colder northern regions while the hot-season grasses are excellent in the warmer south. 

 

As such, the grasses behave differently when exposed to various temperatures. The cold-season grasses become stressed in high temperatures while the hot-season grasses are better equipped to cope in this weather.  

 

So the next time you are doing your landscape design, ensure you select an appropriate grass for the warm Santa Cruz weather. Should you select the cold-season grass for this warm climate, it would be much difficult to keep your lawn green all summer. 

 

2. Water Your Lawn Properly

 

Proper watering of your lawn is one of the obvious things that can keep it healthy for a long time. However, when the lawn is incorrectly watered, the grass is bound to lose its vibrant look under the summer sun. The following practices would ensure that your lawn receives enough moisture to remain healthy. 

 

3. Train Your Lawn

 

Your lawn must be properly trained for it to survive the hot summer weather. The training allows the grass to develop a deep root system that would enable it to tap water from a deeper level. To train your lawn, deeply water your lawn once or twice a week rather than short daily soaks. This allows the grass to develop a deep root system rather than a shallow one. 

 

4. Water in the Morning

 

Your lawn benefits more when it is watered early in the morning than at any other time. Mornings are always perfect because the temperatures are cooler and there is less evaporation. Avoid watering the lawn when the sun is scorching outside because the water evaporates before percolating into the ground. Similarly, avoid watering at night because the lawn becomes damp, which creates perfect conditions for diseases to develop. 

 

5. Keep Your Grass Longer

 

Mowing is an essential part of garden design and summer lawn care. Though as aforementioned, improper mowing practices could lead to lawns losing their lushness. There are two benefits of keeping your grass longer. It develops a deeper root system, and the longer grass blades shade the delicate root system from the harsh summer sun. This protects the grass on the lawn from drying up too quickly and thus remaining green. As standard practice, never mow your lawn shorter than three inches as to keep it healthy all summer.  

 

6. Fertilize Your Lawn

 

Your lawn needs a source of nutrients to stay healthy. It is essential that you replenish the nutrients on your lawn regularly for it to grow thick and healthy. Microbes take about six to eight weeks to process the nutrients, so fertilize your lawn after this interval. It is recommended that you use a low-nitrogen lawn fertilizer to prevent the grass from growing very fast.  

 

7. Keep Off the Grass

 

During the summer, your lawn is under much stress from traffic. Movement by kids, pets, family, or vehicles causes much damage to the lawn and the ground below. If you notice a discolored patch as a result of traffic, keep off the damaged area and give it a chance to recover. 

 

8. Control Weeds Early and Often

 

Santa Cruz landscaping professionals advocate for controlling the weeds early and often rather than spraying the whole lawn with a weed killer. To get rid of weeds, manually pull them from the ground or use a weeding fork. 

 

Santa Cruz Landscaping

 

Contact landscape experts K&D Landscaping if you have any questions regarding garden design, summer lawn care, heat resistant lawns, or landscape design ideas. There you will find everything you need to know about keeping your lawn healthy and green all summer long.