If Mother Nature doesn’t provide rain on request, it’s up to you to water your lawn to keep it green. A beautiful lawn needs fertilizer and water to maintain its looks and lush growth. Too often proper watering is overlooked by homeowners. Alberta lawns require about two hours of watering per week for moisture to penetrate to the proper depth.
Toasty temperatures and long summer days can make you want to skip the yard work and just enjoy the landscape you have. But the summer months can take a real toll on your landscape.
Thankfully, there are some simple summer tasks that can help maintain the beauty of your landscape. The experts at MaxiGreen offer these simple strategies for minimizing heat and moisture stress while also limiting insect and disease problems.
You can conserve moisture by not mowing your lawn during the heat of the day when the freshly cut blades release moisture rapidly and can turn brown. Sharp mower blades create a clean cut that heals quickly vs. the torn grass blades and brown frayed tips that come along with a dull mower blade. You can also conserve moisture by not mowing too short. Closely cut lawns expose the soil to the sun and increase the rate of evaporation causing your lawn to dry out faster.
For shady areas of your lawn that receive less than recommended daily direct sunlight exposure, you may consider a different type of grass species to accommodate better growth and tolerance. For example, the Creeping red fescue type of grass is more tolerant of shade than Kentucky bluegrass. Further adjustments to mowing, watering and fertilizer application will help partially remedy and make your lawn better adjust to shade and lack of exposure to the sunlight.
Mowing: Do not mow any shady areas of your lawn to less than 3 inches in height (versus 1.5 inches to generally recommended height of lawn in sunny areas of your lawn).
Fertilizer and Water: Fertilize and water shady areas of your lawn less than full sun-exposed areas. Overwatering the shady part of your lawn will cause the sitting moisture on the lawn which can contribute to disease, weed and pest growth and infestation and damage to your lawn.
Keep the traffic off the grass: If the shady and problematic area of your lawn is exposed to heavy foot traffic, you may consider installing stone, bark or another medium that is more tolerant to shade and the foot traffic.
Check shady and wet areas more often for disease and pest presence: Diseases such as powdery mildew are often found more in shady and wet areas of your lawn. Checking for any issues in shady and wet areas of your lawn such as corners, under or near trees etc. is recommended.
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