St. Louis summers can wreak havoc on a green lawn. Hot weather, full sun, high heat indexes, and little rainfall means much of your grass can turn brown by mid June.
If you want to avoid dead, brown grass, and keep your lawn green here are 5 summer lawn care tips to keep that grass looking good.
1. Mow you lawn correctly for summer weather
Cut your grass the correct height for hot weather
Cutting your grass slightly higher than normal will make your grass more resistant to heat and drought. Taller grass encourages deeper roots and reduces water evaporation from the soil. Taller grass will also crowd out weeds that may grow in the summer.
To minimize stress to your lawn, make sure to never cut more than 1/3 of the total height of grass at a time.
Keep your mower blades sharp
A sharp blade keeps you grass healthy. Dull blades tear the grass rather than cutting. Dull mower blades can leave brown, ragged edges and invite disease to your lawn.
Leave summer grass clipping on the lawn
If you’re cutting at the right height and never cutting more than 1/3 off your grass, there’s no reason NOT to leave your clippings on the lawn.
Mulching or leaving the clippings on the lawn adds extra nutrients and saves you time from bagging or raking.
2. Water your Lawn for hot, dry weather
For the healthiest summer grass, you should be watering deeply and less frequently. Deep watering promotes deeper root growth, which means your grass will be able reach deeper into the soil for moisture, making it more resistant to drought and hot weather.
It’s best to water only a few times a week and early in the morning. Water until the soil is moist 6-8 inches below the surface. The typical St. Louis lawn need around 1.5 inches of water per week to keep from turning brown.
3. Remove pet waste from your lawn
Summer lawns in St. Louis are already dealing with stress from heat and lack of moisture. Pet waste can add to that stress and cause spots of brown, dead grass.
Removing pet waste as soon as possible and spraying down urine spots as soon as they happen can minimize the damage.
4. Summer lawn fertilizing
There are exceptions, but if your lawn consists of cool season grasses (most lawns in St. Louis), it’s best not to fertilize during the hottest part of summer–especially if you’re using traditional (not natural or organic) fertilizers.
Most cool season grasses go into a dormant phase during summer where growth is minimal. Applying extra fertilizer is wasteful, as your lawn isn’t trying to “eat” nutrients during the summer when the temperature is above 90 degrees. It’s best to focus on proper watering during the hottest summer months.
If your fertilizer schedule is timed right, your lawn should have received an application around the end of May to mid-June, just before the weather turned hot and dry.
If you have warm season grasses like Bermuda or Zoysia, summer IS the time to fertilize, as it’s the primary growing season for these grasses (Let ’em eat!).
5. Eliminate Summer Lawn Pests
Crabgrass: the summer weed that loves heat
The most challenging weed during a St. Louis summer seems to be crabgrass. It thrives in heat and direct sunlight, and pops up anywhere you have a bare spot in your lawn.
If you’re trying to avoid harmful chemicals and follow a natural/organic lawn care regiment, it can be tough to get rid of mature crabgrass in your lawn this time of year. Our favorite Iron HEDTA based selective weed killers won’t kill it, so it’s best just to pull up the plants by the root when possible.
Taller more frequent mowing will minimize new crabgrass plants from growing. To prevent summer crabgrass, you really need to use a pre-emergent herbicide in the spring to prevent the seeds from germinating in the first place.
Other summer broadleaf weeds
Dandelions, creeping charlie, clover, broadleaf plantain, and other broadleaf weeds can all be spot treated with a safe iron HEDTA based selective weed killer that won’t harm your grass.
Iron HEDTA is safe for people and pets. It’s sprayed as a liquid on the lawn and you’ll see the weeds start to die within 48 hours.
Hire a lawn care expert
If you’re having trouble keeping your lawn looking green, or you just simply don’t have time, contact us and we’ll help you out.
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