Lawn care tips for hot summer days

Lawn care tips for hot summer days: Here we go again!  It seems that we are having a bit of a groundhog day when it comes to our lawns drying out again this summer.  With hosepipe bans and low reservoirs …just what can we do to help out lawns as they dry out in the June heat?

Adapting..every June will be different
The first thing to remember is that every summer will be different, in fact every month and every season will be very different.  It is all about adapting your own decisions on the lawn you have, the lawn you want and the weather conditions that we have to work with.

Keep it native!
We have just had a very wet spring, then a dry spring,  and now a very hot summer, so no wonder our poor lawns are confused! Grass species are important when it comes to helping these plants along in our gardens. Native grasses adapt well in the UK, no matter what the weather.  Our UK fescues and bents are a much more sustainable way to go when planning lawns in this country.

Keep learning!
A great tip for lawn care for the summer is to continue learning how your grass copes with stress.  In the heat we are currently having, lots can be done to make lawns look good.

Mowing
Mowing is a pruning technique that we choose to use to make gardens look pretty. The best thing we can do is to ensure blades are sharp, blunt blades stress grass even more.  Do not crop lawns low to look like a Wimbledon lawn in this heat, this will just make them more thirsty, this is an unsustainable technique. Raise the height of cut and this will ensure that the leaf blade retains moisture and nutrients and helps it get through the stressful dry period.

Clippings
You can, of course, throw clippings back on the lawn.  These clippings retain 70 – 80% of the water and this will at least help to put a little bit of moisture back in your lawn.

Watering
If you do not aerate in the correct fashion, soils will dry out much quicker.  But if you have the correct grasses, eg native fescues and bents, for your lawn, they will adapt and recover after their hot spell ‘siesta’ and you do not need to water at all!

At the Lawn Association, we know that grass is one of the most resilient plants on the planet – it is designed by the true expert, Mother Nature, to survive far worse than this! So it follows that working the right way, nature’s way, will get it back to a healthy green the fastest. We just need to understand what’s been happening in the 30+ degree heat, both above and below ground – and then lend a hand to speed up recovery

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