What makes lawn care in summer so challenging?
One of the biggest challenges for grass care in summer is simply the amount of use our lawns get. We generally spend more time enjoying our gardens during these months, and the grass underfoot can become worn whether from heavy use - such as hosting the kids’ football games - or simply as we spend time admiring our flower beds. This can lead to yellowing patches of grass or even bald spots.
Environmental factors may also pose a challenge. Climate change in the UK is leading to hotter, more arid summers with less rainfall, making dry and dead grass an increasingly common sight. On the other hand, summers with favourable conditions – plenty of heat, light and water – can lead to accelerated grass growth, which brings its own challenges. With your lawn growing fast, you’ll likely find yourself mowing it more regularly, which can cause the grass to become nitrogen deficient, stunting growth and resulting in yellowing leaves. Keeping your grass healthy through varying conditions needn’t be as hard as it sounds, though – with the right lawn feed applied at the right time you can easily keep your grass looking verdant across the summer.
Weeds also tend to thrive in summer, and many of them are well adapted to our increasingly warm, dry conditions, meaning that your grass is having to compete for resources.
Your guide to summer lawn maintenance
With tough conditions all around, you will likely find that your lawn requires more attention and enhanced grass care in summer, but treatment doesn’t have to be complicated. Appropriate care comes down to the three pillars of feeding, seeding and weeding – along with a healthy dose of mowing. In this section, we’re going to show you how to tackle each of those.
Feeding
Wondering how to feed your lawn in summer? One of the essential things grass needs to thrive is water, and this can be hard to come by in our increasingly dry summer months. During dry spells, give your lawn a good soaking once or twice a week. Try to avoid giving it a light sprinkling every day, as this can cause the roots to grow shallow and become prone to drying out. You also want to water it when the moisture is likely to soak in, rather than evaporate under a hot sun; early morning or late evening is ideal.
Warm weather will encourage your grass to grow rapidly and use up the nutrients in your soil. As well as watering your lawn, it’s worth giving it an extra helping hand by providing it with some valuable summer lawn feed to keep it healthy and looking a luscious green. This is especially important if you have to mow your lawn regularly, as grass feed contains that all-important nitrogen that your lawn can lose through repeated trims.
For a fast, last-minute green up, use a liquid lawn feed which will transform your grass into a lush blanket in just 24 hours – ideal if you’re hosting family or friends. For larger areas, apply a granular grass feed for more comprehensive results. Remember that during dry conditions, granular feeds will need to be watered in to activate the nutrients, so make sure you keep the ground moist and don’t forget that you can use a lawn spreader to give you more even coverage. This is crucial if you don’t want to end up with a patchy lawn, as you will clearly be able to see the areas the feed hasn’t reached, or those which have been over-fed and damaged.
It’s worth noting that a well-fed and maintained lawn will have a stronger and deeper root system, enabling it to withstand and recover from long dry periods. Why not feed and water your lawn at the same time? Hose-end feeders can help you apply a feed as you water or soluble feeds can be applied using a watering can.
Seeding
Appropriate feeding will be enough to keep most gardens healthy in ideal conditions, but your lawn may develop patches of dead grass or bald spots with frequent use or adverse summer conditions. If this is the case, you may wish to consider re-seeding these patches. While the optimum times for seeding and repairing your lawn are spring and early autumn, it can be successfully repaired in summer, provided you’re willing to water it diligently.
There are a number of lawn repair products available that are a durable solution and grow almost anywhere. However, for a summer lawn treatment that’s effective, make sure you read our article on lawn patch repair to understand what has caused the damage to your lawn, and which product is most appropriate for repairing that damage.
