No rain for several days total…
What would you do in such drought conditions to save your lawn from severe burnout if the local weather forecast told you about that?
For beginners, here are some lawn care tips of mine on how to keep grass green in hot weather.
How To Take Care Of An Established Lawn
Mowing
Start with the most crucial element – mowing.
To keep your lawn health from the stress of hot weather, I highly recommend letting it grow out a bit because this helps shade the soil better to minimize evaporation while promoting deeper, stronger roots to suck up more moisture.
Determining when to mow your lawn is super-important during drought conditions.
It’s because if you cut it too short, the grass will lose its ability to make the needed energy to grow, resulting in more potential disease, stress, or scalping.
When mowing your lawn, remember to set it on a high mode and leave the grass at least 3” high.
For more information, look at this table:
Type of Grass | The ideal height to mow the grass |
Zoysia | 1 1/2” – 2” |
Tall fescue | 3” – 4 ¾” |
St. Augustine | 3 ¾” – 4 ½” |
Perennial ryegrass | 2” – 3 ¾” |
Kentucky bluegrass | 3” – 3 ¾” |
Fine fescue | 3” – 3 ¾” |
Centipede | 2” – 3” |
Bermuda grass | 1 ½” – 2” |
Make sure to keep the mower blades always sharp to help grass heal faster and don’t forget to add nutrients back into your lawn by clipping it.
If your living area is suffering seriously drought conditions, it’s encouraged not to mowing your lawn until there’s rainfall or at least after you water it.
Bonus: For beginners who are seeking the best electric lawnmowers to maintain your grass, read this guide.
Watering
Obviously, you need to provide the grass with extra watering during times of prolonged dry weather and summer heat.
There are two big consequences if you don’t give it the proper amount of water – a brown lawn & weeds. Yes, weeds are very opportunistic. They will take advantage of thin grass to quickly spread. So below are the full guidelines of watering during the hot weather:
- Keep 1” to 1 ½” of water per week in your lawn is the norm.
- If you have irrigation systems in your lawn, pre-program it to water early every morning (5 to 8 o’clock would be nice) for about 10 minutes. Otherwise, just make sure you water the lawn deeply once or twice per week (three times is the maximum).
- Don’t forget to water mature trees
- Pay extra attention to those areas in the lawn where they receive extra sunlight during the day
- Make sure to measure the amount of water every time of watering to know when is enough. You can use either a rain gauge or a tuna can (when it gets full, you’ve watered enough).
Fertilizing
Applying fertilizer improperly during hot weather might chemically burn the blades.
To avoid that, follow these strategies:
Which fertilizer formulations to use
To avoid the threat of chemical burn, prioritize the slow-release fertilizers only as they give the gentlest impact on the lawn.
You can use quick-release fertilizers but they should be at a reasonable rate followed the dosage recommendation on the label for your area.
When to apply fertilizer
Keyword: Avoid those times when the temperature is scorching hot and the sun is fully up.
According to that, there are two ideal times for fertilizing your lawn: 1) in the early morning hours and 2) whenever the weather conditions are a bit overcast and temperatures keep under 85 degrees F.
How to water the fertilizer?
Right after applying fertilizer, water it thoroughly.
Make sure to soak the 6” top of the soil but don’t pool on it to prevent fertilizer from being washed down to the root zone of grass, making it further chemical burnout.
How To Take Care Of A Newly-Laid Lawn
Unlike the established lawns, newly-laid turf is not strong enough in its root system, therefore, it requires extra caring to support the grass’s survival mode.
Please be extremely vigilant overwatering if you’re forced to turfing during the drought.
Before laying your turf, add some water-retaining gel crystals to the soil. This is my secret to keep the new lawn grow healthily in hot weather because they will help minimize the water loss from evaporation.
Again, keep watering it in the early morning or whenever the temperature drops to below 85 degrees F. Late evening is also ideal but I rarely do that because of the darkness’s limitations.
Besides, talk to your water authority for a temporary exemption if your living area is subject to a hosepipe ban. Otherwise, you probably get much exercise when irrigating the new lawn with a watering can.
Conclusion
It’s better to spend extra time to take care of your turf rather than waiting for it to brown and then calling for help from the local landscaping contractors.
According to many experts, it’s considered too late with a brown turf that looks like coconut matting. Watering by then just gives the grass more stress.
I hope with the given information, tips, and tricks, you’ve got a better idea of how to keep grass green in hot weather to take good care of yours. Thanks for reading!
