Here’s a quick rundown of august lawn care jobs, including holiday lawn care, mowing, lawn treatments and planning autumn’s renovation and rejuvenation tasks.
Mid summer is your lawn’s busiest time of year. Not only is it being enjoyed on a daily basis, it’s acting as a living air conditioner, keeping your garden cool and helping create the perfect microclimate for plants and wildlife.
Supporting your lawn during this busy time is all about understanding what the plants need on a daily basis as well as planning ahead to help your lawn recover from all that wear and tear.
Perhaps you’re going on your holidays and want to make sure you don’t return to a knee-high jungle? Maybe you are worried about the grass changing colour. Hopefully we’ll be able to address your concerns in this article. Here are the august lawn care tips we’ll be covering in this article.
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- Lawn care while you are on holiday
- Getting your lawn under control after a holiday
- Coping with brown lawns
- Mowing
- Watering
- Lawn treatments for august
- Organise your autumn lawn renovations
Holiday lawn care
After the year we’ve just had, I think everyone is ready for a holiday. When you’re heading off for a staycation, the last thing you should be worrying about is your lawn. Trust me, grass knows how to look after itself and really won’t mind being left to its own devices for a week or two.
A couple of august lawn care jobs to take care of before you go are watering and mowing. That way, you are less likely to come home to a lawn that’s unrecognisable. It’s important too, to take all of the toys, furniture, paddling pools etc off the lawn before you go
Watering is largely a matter for personal taste – and of course, depends on the weather forecast.
An established lawn will be OK without watering for a week or two. However, if you have a young lawn (less that 6 months old) it shouldn’t be allowed to dry out. If the weather forecast talks of hot dry days, it’s worth investing in some sort of irrigation with a timer. That may be a set of sprinklers with an automatic timer, or it may be a helpful neighbour. If you choose the former – make sure the system reaches the whole lawn – not just a circle in the middle of it!
If you’re only away for a few days, giving the lawn a really good soaking before you go, should be adequate. (Unless it’s very new turf or seed). My tuna tin trick is a good way of gauging how much water to add. Watch this video to learn more.
Returning from holiday – what does your lawn need?
You will probably come back from your holidays to find that your lawn has been happily doing its own thing. If it’s a little longer than you’d like, please don’t try to cut all that extra growth off in one go. As tempting as it may seem, you’ll stress the plants and may end up with a sickly yellow lawn – which is far uglier than a long lawn.
Remember the one third rule. Only ever remove one third of the grass blades at any one cut. So if your lawn is 6cm long – adjust the mower blades so that you bring it down to 4cm. Leave it a couple of days, measure it again and remove another third. Within a couple of weeks you should be getting back to normal.
My lawn is turning brown, is it dead?
It’s very normal for an established lawn to change colour during the summer months, especially if the weather is particularly hot and dry. This is the plants’ natural defence against dehydration.
In warm weather, a healthy green leaf loses a lot of water during the day due to something called evapotranspiration. Tiny holes on the surface of the leaf allow water from inside the plant to evaporate, this cools the plant and ensures that it doesn’t cook. BUT if that water cannot be replaced by moisture taken from the soil by the roots, then the plant could be in trouble. A bit like you or I running a marathon in 30 degree heat and not drinking enough fluids. Nasty.
To stop the evaporation – the plants withdraw as much water as possible in the leaves and store it in the roots. The roots and the crown of the grass plant stay very much alive, and as soon as it rains, the leaves will rehydrate and turn green again.
August lawn care jobs
Mowing
If your grass keeps growing, please keep mowing. Remember that one third rule. And if you can, raise your mower blades a little. A longer sward will shade the ground and protect against moisture loss. That way your lawn will stay greener and cope better with wear and tear.
It’s crucial that your mower blades are super-sharp at this time of year. A clean cut will seal itself before the grass loses too much water. Blunt blades will rip at the grass and create ragged edges that are slower to heal.
Watering
Keep an eye on the news and if you are unlucky enough to have a hose pipe ban in your area, please stick to the rules.
Water is a precious resort, only water your lawn if it really needs it. It’s OK for an established lawn to lose its colour during hot weather.
Be wary of giving your lawn too much water. Creating a hot steamy microclimate around the leaves will encourage fungal diseases. If you need to irrigate, it’s better to water really deeply once or twice a week and let the soil dry out between waterings. The only exception to this rule is newly laid turf which should NEVER be allowed to dry out.
Lawn treatments
At Premier Lawns we recommend a late summer lawn treatment to help your lawn cope with summer stresses. A slow release fertiliser will give the grass all of the nutrients it needs to grow strong roots that will search for water and leaves that repair themselves quickly when damaged by feet, paws, furniture and mower blades.
Choose your fertiliser carefully – too much nitrogen will produce soft, sappy growth that is susceptible to disease as we go into autumn.
Applying Humic Acid in late summer really does give the soil a boost and will help your lawn make the most of the nutrients in your summer lawn feed. Here’s how Humic acid works.
Make sure your garden shows your lawn at its best
Proud of your lawn? Then show it off with neat hedges, a pristine patio and healthy garden plants. Lawn care extends to the rest of the garden too. Keep dead heading flowers to extend the display, remove weeds, mulch borders to conserve moisture and now that the birds have finished nesting, give those hedges a good trim.
Planning ahead for autumn
I hate to say it, but cooler days and shorter evenings will soon be here. The Premier Lawns team are already taking bookings for autumn renovations and lawn treatments. If you need help with essential autumn lawn care jobs such as scarifying and aeration, please get in touch as soon as possible.
Find out more about late summer lawn treatments
Tips on caring for your lawn in hot weather.
Enjoy your lawn with these 7 fantastic garden activities for children