4 Tips for Keeping Your Lawn Alive Through The Summer Heat

Keep your lawn looking lush and green throughout the summer heat with these easy tips!

Photo: Giffin & Crane General Contractors, Inc.

Summertime is a time for fun, sun and lawn care. In fact, people take great pride in their lawns, but they are especially vigilant during summer. If they don’t pay attention, the summer heat can actually pose a threat to their lawn.

In this article, we will present you with 4 tips to help you keep your lawn alive through the summer heat.

1. Water At The Right Time of the Day

Many people feel that you can water any time of day, and still have a healthy lawn. The fact is, it is quite the contrary. It all has to do with the timing of sunlight.

Photosynthesis needs sunlight to take place. If you water at night, photosynthesis cannot take place and you could introduce lawn disease into the soil.

On the other hand, irrigating your lawn during the heat of the day is no good either. The soil will only absorb a small part of it due to evaporation.

So the best time to water your lawn is in the morning, just before or just as the sun is coming up. The soil can properly absorb all the water you gave it, in time for the sunlight to do the rest, paving the way for optimum photosynthesis.

Photo: Arcadia Studio

2. Water For Deep Roots

To have a healthy lawn, you need deep roots. Watering at the right intervals will help you achieve that.

Watering that is too frequent will make your root system shallow. If you want to develop deep roots, give your lawn two or three long soaks per week, and again, in the morning.

This will ensure that, through the brutal summer months when the heat can do plenty of damage, your lawn will be alive and well, with strong roots to boot.

Photo: Ryan Street & Associates

3. Give Your Lawn Some Air

Aerating your lawn – the process of pushing holes at six inch intervals all over your lawn – allows nutrients to get to the roots, helps it absorb water better, making it thick and healthy.

However, aerating is not something that you do like watering your lawn. It’s something that’s done once in early and late spring, and early fall.

Aerating your lawn can be done with a machine, especially if you have a large lawn. However, you can take a garden fork to poke into your lawn at intervals of six inches all over your lawn.

4. Mow At a Higher Height

Many people cut their lawns short so they don’t have to mow as often. This could be damaging to your grass.

If you cut your lawn too short, the roots of the grass are more exposed to the scorching heat, and could dry out fast. Cutting the grass at a higher height will leave the grass blades long, providing more protection for the roots.

Summary

We learned that watering 2-3 times a week, with long morning soaks, aerating your lawn and mowing at a higher height will all contribute to a real healthy lawn. We hope that you picked up some good tips that you can use so that your lawn will s