What to do When Your Lawn Turns Brown

 

Summer’s heat can stress your lawn in a number of ways. You may notice brown patches showing up. Your lawn may look sparse and lack the dark green color you’re used to seeing and no amount of water seems to improve the situation. Some of these problems are related to the varieties of turf grass growing in our lawns. Bluegrass, perennial rye and turf type fescues are considered cool season grasses and their natural tendency is to go dormant when stressed by high temperatures and poor cultural practices. When grass plants go dormant your lawn turns brown. When this happens, it’s important that you check your sprinkler system to make sure it is functioning properly. Start by making sure each head is operating and clear of any obstacles.  

 

Run the system and verify the area watered by each sprinkler overlaps the area watered by the adjacent sprinkler. Overlap is important to avoid dry spots. This time of year, your lawn typically needs 2.0” to 2.5” of water a week. This amount should be delivered over the course of two or three applications through the week. The best time to water is early morning, before 8 am.  The amount of water necessary to keep your lawn functioning at an acceptable level is influenced by the quality of the soil as much by the variety of grass you’re growing. Just like every other plant, tree and shrub in your landscape, your lawn will only do as well as the soil it’s growing in. If the soil wasn’t amended properly when your lawn was first planted, summer’s heat can bring on a myriad of problems, including brown patches, thin spots and turf die back. You know you have a problem when your grass looks bad no matter how much water you give it. Short of tearing your lawn out and starting over, there are steps you can take now to improve your soil and keep your lawn looking good through the summer season.  

Step one:  add humate to your soil by applying organic Natural Guard HuMic.  Humate is basically super compost which improves soil structure, encourages root growth and helps your grass take up nutrients more efficiently. HuMic comes in granular form and is easy to apply, using your fertilizer spreader.  

Step two: treat your lawn with Revive®. Simply put,  Revive® helps water soak into the ground, down to the root zone, resulting in less evaporation and run off and better utilization by the grass. Similar to Humate, Revive® also helps grass take up nutrients. Revive® is available in granular and liquid form. Both are effective, though Revive® granular has the added benefit of a small amount of Nitrogen.  

Step three, top dress with organic material. Top dressing is the process of applying thin layers of compost, worm castings or peat moss to your existing turf. Top dressing at regular intervals will help reduce the clay content in your turf grass soil and increase microbial population and activity. Microbes work to improve the relationship between turf grass roots, soil and nutrients. As a result, turf grass develops more vigor and stress tolerance, especially heat. 

 

Step four: Set your mower height range as high as it will go. This will reduce heat stress on the lawn, help retain moisture and encourage deep root development.  Combine the increased height with more frequent mowing. Plan to mow often enough so that you’re not removing more than one-third of the total length of the grass at any one time.  Good mowing practices combined with a well-functioning sprinkler system, plus the addition of soil improvements such as Revive® and Natural Guard HuMic three times a year,  will help your lawn stay green and healthy throughout the growing season.