Hot summer care tips

August is a tough month for turf grasses. Typically hot and dry, late summer weather stresses grass if it doesn’t outright kill it. Long deep weekly waterings will keep it alive yet dormant.

August is also an excellent time to apply corn gluten meal for fall weed control. Be certain you are not going to seed grass in the next six weeks or the corn gluten meal will prevent any seed from germinating.

This summer’s drought and intense heat damaged a lot of lawns. There is only one thing to do to fix a heat damaged lawn – seed it!
Here’s how to do it:
1. Rake the dead and damaged areas exposing as much top soil as possible.
2. Deep aerate the bare soil with a digging fork, spade or aerator. Push the fork or spade as deep as you can, rock it back and forth and pull it out. Do this once every square foot to allow water and amendments to penetrate deeply and you will drought proof your lawn.
3. Top dress with a high quality compost to a depth of 1/2 inch.
4. Apply bone meal or starter fertilizer to help with the germination and root development.
5. Sow the grass seed sparingly. Most people over apply the grass seed. You should be able to see more soil than seed. Look at an area of your lawn and count the number of grass plants you can cover with your hand. This is about how many seeds you should plant in a similar-sized area. Over application of seeds will result in an over population of grass plants. These grass plants compete for water, light and nutrients with many seedlings dying and leaving large areas of bare soil. This is an open invitation for weed invasion.
6. Water the seeded areas once daily for 2 weeks keeping the soil moist. Slowly taper off in the watering schedule moving to infrequent yet deep watering.