We have gotten to the part of the year where the temperatures are in the 90s and we aren’t getting much rain. The beautiful lush green grass you had in May is starting to look dry and even yellow in some places; these are signs of stress for your lawn. Here are some things on how to fix dry grass and make your lawn happy and green again.
Water Your Lawn
Watering is the simplest way on how to fix dry grass. You probably have already been doing this, but have you been doing it enough? We recommend watering 3 times a week with a minimum of 30 minutes per zone. That is a lot of watering and can be costly, but it is one of the few ways to ensure that the soil your grass lives. Your lawn needs an adequate amount of moisture to keep the stress levels down. Think about the last time you spent a full day under the hot sun. You were probably thirsty, sweaty, and exhausted by the end of the day. Your lawn feels that way too, but this is every day for it in the summer. Don’t forget to quench its thirst!
Use Revive
What is it? Revive is a wetting agent that can be laid down while fertilizing or on its own. Revive allows water to penetrate down into hard soil so that it can retain more moisture, especially during summer months. It is a time release product and will last a few weeks. Even one use of this product will help your lawn’s health in the long run for the season. It is difficult for water that is deep in the soil to evaporate and the moisture will keep your lawn happy. We offer Revive here at Erbert Lawns, we can help fix dry grass!
Leaf Blight
Another thing to be aware of is leaf blight, also known as Ascochyta which is a fungus. This is a lawn disease that can appear overnight. It will cause shoots of grass to turn yellow or brown and it almost looks like the grass has a chemical burn. The main cause of this is stress and we start to see a lot of leaf blight in Colorado as soon as summer hits. There may be areas where the soil’s moisture is constantly fluctuating, having an irrigation system that is evenly watering the grass and aeration in the spring can be used as preventative measures.
Once you have leaf blight though, it’s better to treat it sooner than later. We offer a leaf blight treatment here at Erbert Lawns. It comes in the form of a spray and we use it on the specific areas where the leaf blight is. The spray kills the fungus and prevents it from coming back. This treatment needs at least 48 hours to attach itself to the top of the grass blades, so it is very important to NOT water your lawn during that time.
Mowing
Mowing regularly and not cutting it too short. We recommend that your grass is cut at around 3 inches. This length is good because the grass can shade the soil and keep its roots safe from the sun. Cutting it shorter than that may look nice at first, but it won’t as soon as the grass begins to be stressed and it will look burned. Learn more about how to achieve a healthy root system here.
There is no official “sun screen” for grass, but I hope these suggestions help you keep a happy green lawn all summer!
