Summer is the season for backyard barbecues set on a perfect lawn. But who wants to sweat and toil in the yard to achieve that lush, green perfection? You don’t have to obsess to achieve a healthy summer lawn. In fact, when it comes to summer lawn care, lazy care can be the best care.
Long Grass is Healthy Grass
Leave your mower in the shed. Close-clipped, over-mowed lawns are more prone to stress from heat and drought conditions. Longer blades will let your grass take advantage of the sun and grow deep, resolute roots.
Up your mower height to between 3.5 and 4.5 inches, and don’t bother to mow until you’ll be removing just under a third of the blade length. That extra length will mean less stress for you and your grass.
Leave Those Clippings
Raking and bagging grass clippings is more trouble than it’s worth. Leave those clippings right where they are. In most cases, you’ll be doing your grass a favor.
Grass clippings work as a natural, slow-release fertilizer. The blades are nitrogen-rich and break down quickly on a well-tended lawn. Use a mulching mower for the best results.
Water Less Often
It sounds counter-intuitive, but being lazy with your watering can make your lawn healthier. The light, frequent waterings many homeowners are used to dolling out can lead to shallow grass roots and weak plants.
Infrequent, deep waterings are the key to drought-tolerant roots. Just 1 inch of water once a week is perfect for most grasses. Cool-season grasses in sunny areas or planted on fast-draining soil may need a little more or a twice a week schedule.
Invest In A Sprinkler Timer
To reduce evaporation, it’s best to water your lawn in the morning. Keeping up with your watering schedule can be a pain without a fancy in-ground system, but you can get that stress-free scheduling with a hose sprinkler setup. All you need is a sprinkler timer.
Sprinkler timers screw onto outdoor spigots. You attach your hose and sprinkler, set your schedule, turn the water on and walk away. The timer will only let the water flow through the hose on its programmed schedule.
Call the professionals for any extra summer lawn care needs!
If you want to minimize the amount of lawn work you have to do, you can always hire a lawn care professional to keep your grass looking great. For more information, contact us for a quote.