Tips for A Healthy Summer Lawn
We’re in the dog days of summer, which can be the most difficult time of year for maintaining a healthy lawn in the Lowcountry. Sustained heat can take its toll on our Point Hope landscapes! Many thanks to our friends at BrightView, our community’s landscape maintenance provider, for sharing the following summer-specific lawn care tips with our residents:
Maintain Proper Mowing Practices
Routine mowing is an important practice for developing a thick, lush lawn, but if your turfgrass resembles a drill instructor’s crew cut, you have taken a good thing too far!
During the summer months, set your mower depth to a height that ensures you are never removing more than one-third of the grass blade. “Scalping” the lawn to a lower blade height may increase water and nitrogen consumption, but the density of your lawn will be reduced. Routinely scalping the lawn can also cause the grass to go into dormancy sooner and to suffer more heat stress and cold damage as a result.
Be sure to use a sharpened blade when mowing. Dull blades result in ragged cuts that give grass a whitish cast, stunt growth and make turf susceptible to disease. Sharpen or replace mower blades at least once a year.
Allow clippings to remain on your lawn. Proper mowing height and frequency ensures that clippings - which are 30% nitrogen - will break down quickly, and reincorporating them into the soil can dramatically reduce fertilizer requirements.
Each type of turfgrass has a recommended height range for mowing as illustrated below:
Bermuda grass—1 to 2 inches
Hybrid Bermuda grass—.5 to 1.5 inches
Centipede—1.2 to 2 inches
St. Augustine—2.5 to 4 inches
Zoysia—1 to 2 inches
Maintain Proper Fertilization Techniques
When you apply fertilizer is just as important as what type of fertilizer you use.
A good rule of thumb is to wait until after the beginning of May to apply fertilizer, but to stop all fertilization after the early part of August.
Look for fertilizer that contains one-third of its nitrogen in a slow-release form. This will give a slow, steady feeding of nutrients over the course of six weeks.
Never use more than the recommended amount of the fertilizer you choose, and measure it before it goes into the spreader using this handy rule of thumb: Two cups of fertilizer = approximately one pound.
Apply fertilizer to dry grass blades and then water it in.
To ensure an even application of fertilizer, split the recommended amount in half. Apply the first half back and forth in one direction, then rotate 90 degrees and apply the remaining fertilizer. If you are unsure of what setting to use on your spreader, set it to the lowest setting. Keep applying the fertilizer in alternating patterns until you have applied the recommended amount to the lawn.
Follow A Careful Irrigation Schedule
Most Charleston area residential lawns respond best to deep and infrequent irrigation. Warm-season turf grasses like Bermuda and zoysia have the best drought tolerance, while centipede and St. Augustine have moderate drought tolerance.
During hot and dry weather, supplemental irrigation may be needed. It is time to water when the lawn takes on a bluish cast or the blades fold up. You can also walk across your lawn in the evening to check for proper moisture: If the grass in the footprints remains flat, plan on watering your lawn the following morning.
The best management practice is to water pre-dawn. If irrigation is applied between 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. the leaves have the entire day to dry, and the lawn and other plants in the landscape can efficiently photosynthesize throughout the day. When irrigation is applied during the afternoon, as much as 20 to 30 percent of the water can be lost to evaporation. And irrigation during the early evening does not allow enough time for the water to evaporate properly, encouraging fungus and disease.
Avoid over-watering your lawn. Frequent watering encourages the roots to stay close to the surface of the soil, where they are vulnerable to damage from people and pets. These shallow roots will make your lawn susceptible to drought stress during extended hot and dry weather patterns. Overwatering also creates a favorable environment for harmful insects—and the surplus insects often attract moles, which tunnel through the soil and disrupt root systems.
By establishing and maintaining a routine that incorporates these helpful hints, you’re sure to have a lush and beautiful lawn throughout the summer season.