When it comes to keeping your lawn healthy, summer is a mixed blessing. Like spring, this season offers no shortage of sunlight, giving your grass the energy it needs to grow tall and strong. Abundant sunlight, however, comes at the cost of extreme high temperatures. Heat can cause water to evaporate quickly, making it difficult to irrigate your grass even if you live somewhere with abundant summer rains. Combined with the ongoing need to maintain good soil and eliminate pests, this makes summer lawn care service a challenge.
Senske Services is committed to helping you meet and overcome this challenge. By taking the right precautions at the right times, you can minimize the risks to your lawn while taking full advantage of summer sunlight. The following tips will leave you well prepared to preserve your grass no matter how hot this season gets:
Summer Lawn Care Service
As a responsible lawn owner, you know to adapt to not only changes from season to season, but also subtle differences over the course of one season. You should thus treat your grass differently as the summer goes on, tailoring your work to:
Early Summer- If you didn’t fertilize your lawn at the end of spring, now is the time to do so. You should also treat the grass for grubs and other types of insects, and begin to take action against weeds. Mow your grass high at this point so that the blades are large enough to pull in lots of sunlight.
Mid Summer- At this point, you should check to see how deeply water is making it into your soil; if it doesn’t go at least 4 inches down, you should decrease thatch by aerating the soil. You should also continue to fertilize, unless there is a drought, in which case you should wait for the rains to return before applying more fertilizer.
Late Summer- Depending on where you live, the most extreme summer temperatures often come at the end of the season. You should thus switch to watering in the morning so that moisture can soak into the soil before evaporating. Weeds often spring up during this time, so look out for them and spray or pluck any you find immediately.
Senske provides each of these services on a careful timetable. By studying the unique needs of your lawn as well as summer weather patterns, we know exactly what you need throughout the season.
Summer Weed Control
Summer is an important point in the weed life cycle. Common weeds generally bloom during this season, at which point they spread seeds throughout your yard. This means that if you can eliminate weeds in the summer before they start to bloom, you will barely have to worry about them the rest of the year.
The most effective way to eliminate weeds en masse is to use a post-emergent herbicide. Modern products are designed to kill weeds while causing as little damage as possible to the surrounding grass. They are only effective, however, if the temperature is below 85 degrees Fahrenheit on the day you apply them and for several days after. It thus makes sense to spray herbicide at the beginning of the season. Once you have sprayed the herbicides, water your grass to spread them throughout the soil.
Even though they are designed not to harm grass, herbicides can cause some damage if the turf is already stressed from heat and drought. For this reason, many people choose to weed their yards by hand first; even if they still spray herbicide after, they don’t have to use as much. When you pluck weeds, make sure to throw them away somewhere where they cannot spread their seeds. You should also fill in the hole where they were with grass seeds so that new weeds do not grow there.
Senske Services takes full advantage of summer opportunities for weed control. We tailor our services to the invasive plants your yard in particular faces, leaving no weeds standing to threaten the grass.
Summer Lawn Fertilizer
In general, summer is not the best time to fertilize your lawn. Giving your grass a burst of nutrients at this point will cause it to grow too lush, too quickly. The grass will then struggle to survive given the high temperatures and scarcity of water in the summer.
The only reason to fertilize in the summer is if you didn’t do so at the end of spring. Even then, do it at the very beginning of the season. In this situation, opt for slow-release fertilizers, which will cause your grass to grow at a healthy rate rather than all at once. Make sure that the fertilizer offers an ample amount of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, all of which are necessary for healthy grass and garden growth. Senske pays close attention to lawn fertilization characteristics, administering the proper product on the rare occasion you need it in the summer.
Summer Lawn Insect Control
Insects are a threat throughout the year, but summer is often the easiest time for them to do real damage. Because plants are often stressed from heat and dehydration, they are more vulnerable to insect attacks. Thus one of the most effective ways to protect your plants from insects is to water them adequately. Give the lawn at least an inch of water a week and administer it in the early morning, when it won’t evaporate.
Besides watering, you may need to limit insect numbers by applying pesticides. It is particularly important to go after grubs, which hatch during the summer. Applying a grub control product in midsummer will go a long way toward protecting your grass. Senske identifies the most common pests in your yard and eliminates them quickly and efficiently.
The Importance of Seasonal Lawn Care
When protecting your lawn in the summer, remember to tailor your care to both the specific season and the specific type of grass you use. If you have warm-season grass, such as Buffalo or Bahia, you should aerate the soil at the beginning of the summer, since that is when the grass will start growing and needs to be able to spread its roots. The Senske team knows exactly which grass requires summer aeration and is happy to provide that as needed.
Senske Services is committed to keeping your grass healthy and beautiful throughout the year. To request a free estimate for our summer services, call 877-944-4007 or contact us today.
