It is no secret that summers brings about some amazingly high temperatures in the south that stress not only everyone that steps foot outside, but also all the plants that can’t escape the heat. You may notice that your lawn, especially if you have fescue turfgrass planted, seems to struggle to the point of giving up.
Brown patches may start to appear and make your lawn look patchy or large areas of your lawn may even just go dormant in the extreme heat. The reason for this is often because nighttime temperatures offer no relief from the high daytime temperatures that are scorching this cool-season grass. When the nighttime temperatures stay above seventy degrees Fahrenheit, fescue grass can’t recover from the intense sunshine and heat from the day before. The recovery time of cool nights is imperative to healthy, green fescue grass.
To help your fescue grass survive the hot summer days and nights, there are a few things you can do. For one, you are going to want to make sure your lawn is getting enough water, not too much, so make sure to account for rainfall during the week. About one inch per week is how much your grass needs to survive. Make sure to use proper watering techniques to avoid wasting water through evaporation. It is also important to water correctly to help develop strong and deep reaching roots.
When the temperatures are stressing everyone out and taking a toll on your fescue lawn, remember to set your mowing height at three inches or so to allow the grass to retain more of its strength. Mowing at this higher level also allows the grass to shade the soil better which helps it maintain cooler temperatures and prevent the soil from being dried out by the sun.
7 Tips to Reseeding your Fescue Lawn
You are also going to want to put your fertilizer on hold for a while. It is tempting to start giving your grass everything you think will revive its healthy color, but fertilizing the grass when it is so stressed does nothing to help it. The fescue is stressed and unable to take in the extra nutrients you are trying to force feed it. For many fescue lawns what really helps is time. You just have to wait out some of those really hot weeks and your grass will surprise you with how well it is rejuvenated when temperatures drop to lower digits.
Proper soil, mowing and watering are all very important no matter what type of grass you have in your lawn, so get acquainted with what your grass type needs and likes to help make sure your grass survives this summer!
Greenfeet Lawncare Provides Service to the Following Areas
770.619.2929
North Fulton, East Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth Counties - including Alpharetta, Canton, Cobb, Cumming, Dunwoody, Gwinnett, Johns Creek, Marietta, Milton, Roswell, Sandy Springs
