Time to revive your lawn
When the summer heat reaches its peak and the rain becomes more and more infrequent, it is the beautiful, green lawns of Butler County that suffer the most.
With the high heat and dry weather patterns that come with the summer months, grass is going to turn brown and die.
It happens every year, and Julie Habsburg, a 22-year Penn State Master Gardener, says that's OK.
“In a drought, there's really not a lot you can do about it,” Habsburg said of dying grass.
“You're better off letting it die. Some will grow back — not all will — but some will.”
Habsburg said when grass turns brown during a drought period there really is no lawn care practices that can fix it.
She said water should be reserved for drinking or watering a garden during a drought, instead of wasting it on a dead lawn.
One thing you can do during a drought is to keep the grass cut a little higher, at least three inches.
At three inches, the extra height of the grass blades provide protective shade for the roots, which helps to limit damage and prevent weeds.
However, the best thing to do for your lawn, according to Habsburg, is to wait until the drought is over and then work to revive the grass.
Bob Stirling of Stirling Landscape and Nursery said as soon as the temperature begins to drop into the 70s on a consistent basis, usually at the end of August or beginning of September, you can get to work.The first step in Stirling's plan of attack is to check the lawn for weeds.He said he will spend as many as two weeks just removing weeds from the lawn.Habsburg said it is best to weed by hand, without using any chemicals.Once sufficiently weeded, you should then power rake dead grass out of any brown spots on the lawn.“For a burnt-out lawn the first thing you should do it mat it down, power rake it and get all the dead grass out of there,” Stirling said.He then suggests to check the base of the grass for any white grubs.These grubs, Japanese beetles according to Habsburg, will feed on the roots of the grass and can be dealt with an insecticide treatment. Stirling opts for Dylox.If any area of the lawn is heavily compacted, Stirling recommends aerating it, putting two to three inch holes throughout the lawn to add air to the soil.An aerator can be bought or rented, but Habsburg said you can actually aerate a lawn using old golf shoes — the kinds that have metal spikes instead of the newer, plastic ones.
When the lawn is all ready, now is the time to start adding seed.Habsburg suggests using a mix of different kinds of grass seeds for a more diverse lawn.This way, if one kind of grass in the mix does not survive, the others can take over.Home owners should add grass seed to the parts of the lawn that have turned brown, although Habsburg recommends over-seeding green spots as well to give the grass there a boost.When the seeds are down, Stirling uses mulch to keep birds away. Habsburg says home owners could also put straw down but stay away from hay, as that would further dry out the grass.The lawn should then be watered one inch every other day until the seeds start to sprout.When the seeds start to sprout, is the time to rake the straw away.With the seeds sprouted, there is normally enough rainfall in the fall to keep a lawn healthy but if not you should keep watering the lawn until the first frost of the season.Habsburg said the first frost used to come Oct. 15, but has been happening later in the year recently.By that time, however, the lawn should be recovered from the drought and back to its beautiful green color.
