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Keep Your Lawn Green in the Summer Heat! – 5 Easy Steps

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A lawn is a pleasant addition to a home as it adds significant value to it.

Not only does it enhance a home’s curb appeal, but it also serves as a versatile extension of your house, giving you extra space for gatherings or rest.

However, having a well-maintained lawn does bring a few challenges, such as overwatering your lawn grass or grass seeds refusing to grow. It is no wonder that most Americans with gardens or lawns pay an average of $129 each month to have their lawns professionally maintained.

So, wanna know how to keep your lawn green in the summer heat without spending bucks on hiring professionals?

With a hotter summer this year, maintaining your lawn can prove to be even more challenging, though it would also be too costly to hire professional gardeners much more frequently.

Here are some easy steps you can take on your own to make sure that your lawn grass remains healthy and vibrant green.

Lawn mower on grass—keep your lawn green in the summer heat
How to keep your lawn green in the summer heat? — Image via Magda Ehlers.

How Can You Keep Your Lawn Green in the Summer Heat? | The Ultimate Guide

Follow this guide if you want a lush green lawn during the summer heat:

Keep Your Grass Tall

One of the most important things you need to do to maintain your lawn is to mow it.

This keeps lawn grass nice and even, and it also keeps the blades of grass at the ideal height for photosynthesis, as well as nutrient absorption.

However, during summer, you might want to make sure that your grass is a little longer than usual.

  • This may entail mowing your lawn less frequently.
  • Also, you need to use the right type of mower, such as a self-propelled mower or cylinder mower, to ensure that you mow high, thus ensuring that your turf grass is no shorter than three inches.

Mowing high increases your lawn grass’s defense mechanism.

As well, longer lawn grass provides shading to the soil underneath it, keeping soil temperature and moisture levels low. In turn, you reduce the amount of water absorbed by your lawn grass, keeping it green despite higher temperatures.

Water Your Lawn Correctly

Another important step that you need to take to keep your lawn grass green is to water it correctly. It can be frustrating to find that even though you water your grass regularly, it still doesn’t look its best.

In this case, several factors come into play, such as your schedule for watering your lawn, as well as how much water you use.

  • Your lawn grass should receive between 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week, which roughly translates to 1/3 of an inch of water every other day.
  • Ideally, you should water your lawn early in the morning, at least before 9 in the morning, when the day’s temperature is not yet at its peak.
This ensures that you don't lose too much moisture due to evaporation so that the nutrients have sufficient time to get absorbed by the soil.
  • You might also want to avoid watering your lawn grass late in the afternoon or in the evening as this creates a warm, moist environment, thus attracting diseases that can affect your lawn grass.

Aerate Your Lawn

Stepping on your lawn and regularly mowing it can result in overly compacted soil, which in turn inhibits the flow of essential nutrients required for thicker and healthier lawn grass.

Even just a ¼ to ½ layer of compacted soil can have a significant effect on the vibrancy of your lawn, making your lawn grass struggle in stressful situations.

“Aeration can help you address this issue, as it allows air and other nutrients to seep through your lawn, thus helping it absorb nutrients and air more efficiently.”

  • To effectively aerate your lawn, you can use spike aerators that poke a hole down into the soil, or you can use slicing aerators with rotating blades that cut or slice through the grass and down into the soil.
  • Most professionals, meanwhile, use core or plug aerators. These use rows of hollow tines that remove plugs of soil from your lawn and then deposit them on top.

Deal With Weeds and Pests

Aside from the heat, another factor that might contribute to an unhealthy lawn is the presence of pests and weeds.

While weeds steal nutrients that are meant for your lawn grass, pests can infect your lawn soil, as well as your lawn grass roots. Some pests also feed on your lawn grass.

  • Ideally, the best way to take care of weeds, instead of applying weed killer, is to remove them early on and often, pulling them manually or using a weeding fork.
  • Meanwhile, the easiest way to deal with pests is by using pesticides.
  • You can use less pesticide than indicated on the label as the maximum usable amount.

However, when using a pesticide, make sure that you follow precautions, such as keeping it in secure containers and applying it selectively and carefully.

Green bug walking in green plant—keep your lawn green in the summer heat.
To keep your lawn green in the summer heat, please ensure that you take care of the nasty pests and weeds—Image via Ivan Ivanovič.

Feed with Fertilizer

Another way to ensure that your lawn grass has all the necessary nutrients to stay nourished is by fertilizing it, though a number of factors should be considered when it comes to how much fertilizer you need to use.

First, you need to determine what kind of grass you have.

  • If you have cool-season grass, such as Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, Fine Fescue, and Tall Fescue, you might want to skip this step, as fertilizing these types of grasses during summer can cause them to turn brown.
  • Meanwhile, if you have warm-season grass, such as Bahiagrass, Bermuda grass, Centipede grass, St. Augustine grass, and Zoysia grass, it should be fertilized every six weeks during the hot months.

You also need to apply fertilizer judiciously, as overusing fertilizer can burn your lawn.

  • If the fertilizer causes your lawn grass to grow too quickly, you might want to shift to a fertilizer with lower nitrogen content to slow down its growth.

Every lawn is different; some might take more time and effort to maintain than others.

However, no matter the type of lawn you have, by following these basic steps, you’re one step in the right direction.

Following these lawn care tips will ensure that you keep your turf looking its best, despite the sweltering heat this summer.

With all that said, let’s move toward the conclusion.


Conclusion

Well, now you know how to keep your lawn green in the summer heat.

A summary:

  • Ensure that you keep your turf a little taller in summer than you keep it in the winter.
  • Maintain a proper watering schedule and water adequately during the correct time of the day.
  • Aerate your lawn by softening the compacted soil.
  • Don’t forget to deal with the nasty pests and weeds.
  • Finally, occasionally give your lawn a healthy feed.

On that note, let’s conclude the talk. I hope you found this article immensely helpful. If so, please consider sharing it with your friends or family.

Feel free to let us know any of your doubts in the comments section below.

Regards.

James

Thursday 5th of January 2023

Thanks for publishing this thorough article! Not over-mowing is one of the most important things for homeowners to keep in mind when they want to keep their lawns looking beautiful during the summer months. It can be tempting to set the mower deck low and cut the grass short in one fell swoop, but doing so can leave grass susceptible to diseases and nutrient loss. It’s also so important to keep your mower blades sharp all season long so each blade is cleanly cut!