Summer Lawn Care Tips

What should I do with my lawn this summer?

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Lawn care decisions are often based on the amount of time the family or an individual member wants to invest in lawn maintenance. Here are a few tips to help manage your summer lawn based on those criteria.

First, determine the type of grass on your lawn. Grass is generally divided into two types, cool season and warm season, depending on its optimal growing season.

Cool season grasses are those that grow best under the spring and fall weather conditions of the northern half of the United States. There are many different commercial brands of cool season grasses such as bluegrass, ryegrass and fescue. Each type of cool season grass is suited to different conditions. For example, rye grass is better suited than bluegrass for high traffic areas because it puts down better roots. Many lawns, and most of the best kept natural turf athletic fields, use a combination of ryegrass and bluegrass.

If you have a cool season grass on your lawn in the summer, you have the option of allowing it to go dormant and dry out. This option means you will mow your lawn less. Many people in the northern climates enjoy a green lawn during the summer, so watering and mowing are general maintenance necessities. As to mowing height, most of the cool season grasses also should be mowed a bit higher in the summer than in the winter. Taller grass helps with water retention. The exact height of the grass depends on the grass species.

Warm season grasses are those that grow best under the warmer spring, summer and fall conditions found throughout the southern parts of the United States. While temperature and rainfall conditions vary in such a large area, they normally determine which type of warm season grass is most appropriate. Generally speaking, warm season grasses are divided between those for lawns that receive a large amount of sun such as Bermuda grass, and those yards that have more shade, such as St. Augustine grass.

No matter which type of warm season grass is on your lawn, summer is your optimal growing season. In order to keep your lawn in top shape, watering, mowing and fertilizing considerations should be at the top of your maintenance list.

Since there are so many varieties of both cool and warm season grasses, and the summer climate varies across the Unites States, you should look to you local state agriculture extension service to get more specific summer lawn care information.

The Virginia Cooperative Extension of Virginia Tech produced two very comprehensive lawn maintenance documents, one for each type of grass.

Spring and Summer Lawn Management Considerations for Cool-Season Turfgrasses
Spring and Summer Lawn Management Considerations for Warm-Season Turfgrasses

Source: © 2006-2007 Patricia A. Michaels