If you have a lawn in Northwest Indiana, your grass is likely turning brown from heat stress. Today, you’ll learn How to keep a lawn green in the summer heat. 10 tips for Surviving Heat Stress in NWI.
Northwest Indiana’s extreme heat can be punishing on your lawn. Most lawns that were gorgeous in July seem to turn brown once August arrives. It almost seems to happen overnight. It’s demoralizing! It’s painful…and it’s enough to make you want to quit trying and start fresh in the spring. But according to Perma-Green’s Steve Daly, maintaining a green lawn up until November isn’t as difficult as you might think.
But according to Daly, your lawn’s ability to recover in spring depends on you giving it some loving care. Fortunately, keeping your grass healthy year-round isn’t as hard as you might think. Today, you’ll learn the secret to having the greenest lawn when your neighbor’s turf has gone south for the winter.
10 Tips to Revive Your Heat-Stressed Lawn
The key to having a great lawn in late summer is this…
Dead grass scorched by the sun.
Common mistakes that can ruin even the best lawn care include mowing too low, watering too little or too much, or ignoring early signs of insects or disease.
This is especially true in late summer. August is especially hard on lawns in Porter County and Lake County. In fact, it’s common in Northwest Indiana to only see about a third of the precipitation our yards need to be healthy.
The key to having a great green, healthy lawn in August through November is to water correctly and replenish your root systems’ nutrients. This is especially critical after it has been stressed or damaged from the summer heat. The watering part is something anyone can do with the right advice while having the right season-long lawn program is often less costly than you think.
Conversely, doing nothing can be very costly in more ways than one. It’s worth remembering that your lawn is a living ecosystem. Ignoring problems or not treating your lawn correctly may cause your yard to quickly lose that green, healthy look or even die in patches.
The Secret is Revealed… the Best Late Summer Lawns Do This!
Perm-Green’s Steve Daly offers Tips for surviving Heat-Stress in NWI
Summer heat can take a toll on your lawn, especially if you ignore the basic fundamentals that every living plant or animal needs to survive.
According to Daly, the secret to having a great lawn is to give it the nutrients and water it needs, especially after it has been stressed, or getting ready for the winter. Daly recommends going with the right full-season lawn care plan, adjusting your mowing and watering to the season and climate. Daly offers this simple table as a guide.
Fall Lawn Maintenance | Click Image to View
Fortunately for folks in Northwest Indiana, Perma-Green offers a FREE website with helpful watering tips, and real-time rain forecasts, and includes a cool map with each town’s soil composition. It’s a great tool for anyone that wants to maintain a healthy lawn. Visit your community link!
Comeback Kid! How to Revive Your Heat Stressed Lawn.
With the right lawn treatments and the right mowing and watering advice, it’s not too late for your yard to win your neighborhood “Comeback of the Year Award”.
Quite often, the brown grass is a symptom of a bigger problem- that the lawn did not receive the right nutrients throughout the season.
” Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Daly believes starting a lawn care plan in late summer can revive a heat-stressed lawn and help fill in the bare spots. It is also the first step of a lawn care program that can pay dividends next spring and summer.
Keeping Your Grass Green in the Summer.
It starts with this!
Perma-Green likes to boost the lawn with nutrients that include lots of root builders and micronutrients. These give the lawn a gorgeous green color. It also helps restore lawn health and build strong roots. Daly believes this is especially significant when you have kids or a pet.
Daly starts every relationship with a free analysis and estimate. Starting a lawn care plan in the fall allows Daly to assess the lawn after its experienced stress and factor in the best approach for recovery. In addition to finding the best-practice solutions for recovery, Daly also determines which fall and winter fertilizers are needed to help your lawn survive the stress of winter. This is why most experienced lawn care experts agree that fall fertilizing and winterizing are the most significant advancements in lawn sciences. For more on this, here are a few helpful articles. Fall Fertilizers | Secret to Next Year’s Greenest Lawn, and Why Winterizer is the Most Important Fertilizer Ever!
10 tips for Surviving Heat Stress in Northwest Indiana
1. Cutting grass in summer heat and drought conditions
Mow at the proper height. In the heat of summer, adjust your lawnmower to the highest setting and leave grass taller –Taller grass provides shade to the soil, which also reduces water evaporation, helps create deeper roots, and prevents weeds. The right mowing height varies with grass type, variety, soil composition, and weather conditions. P-G’s Month by Month Lawn Maintenance Guide can support best practices. Mow frequently so you’re never removing more than one-third of the leaf surface at a time, but only mow when needed. Avoid mowing in the middle of the day during hot, dry conditions, as this adds undue stress to the grass.
2. Watering lawn during summer heat
Water Efficiently. For the healthiest grass and greenest lawn, water your lawn deeply and infrequently, allowing it to partially dry between irrigations. Seek advice from experts with local area expertise and experience with your soil composition. The soil composition in Northwest Indiana is a mosaic of different soil types that were transported here over thousands of years by either Ice Age glaciers or waterways. Watering advice Daly recommends is different in Porter County than his advice in LaPorte County. Northern Lake County has porous or sandy soils while to the South, the soil retains water and comes with different recommendations. Check out Perma-Green’s community page for your area’s soil composition map.
Watering with Perma-Green’s NWI advice can make a significant difference
3. Feed Lawn
Perma-Green likes to boost the lawn with nutrients that include lots of root builders and micronutrients which gives the lawn a gorgeous green color. It also helps restore lawn health and build strong roots.
4. Weed Control
Slower growing grass can make any weeds seem abundant at this time. Daly recommends that weed control be integrated into a full-season lawn care program specific to your yard’s soil composition and grass type. However, weed control used independently may also be utilized.
5. Watch For Insects and Disease
Lawn insect identification. Insects and diseases can do more than “bug” you….they can devastate your lawn. Mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas can ruin your cherished time with family and friends. Lawn pest control protects your kids & pets from fire ants, fleas and grubs.
With the threat of the West Nile Virus, mosquitoes have become a source of concern for many homeowners. Especially when we have extremely heavy rains, the mosquito population can quickly increase, making outdoor summer activities less desirable. Perma-Green recommends environmentally friendly products that will effectively control mosquitoes all summer long while keeping them safe.
6. Aeration & Overseeding
Aeration is the secret to a good-looking lawn. It breaks up dead grass and it allows water, oxygen & fertilization to get to your lawn’s roots.
Aeration is one of the most important cultural practices available for your lawn. Aeration helps control thatch, improves soil structure, helps create growth pockets for new roots, and opens the way for water and fertilizer to reach the root zone of your lawn. Combining aeration with overseeding helps repair and fill in turf areas to give your lawn the complete Perma-Green treatment.
7. Clean up the Dog waste and urine
The family or neighbor’s dog can cause dead spots on a lawn. Flush the area with water to dilute the urine in the soil.
8. Don’t drive over the grass or park on the grass.
Driving or parking on the lawn is tough on your lawn. It compacts the soil which can cause all kinds of issues, including dead grass. During drought or severe heat, it’s a good idea to avoid walking on the grass.
9. Leave the clippings.
Leave the grass clippings as mulch- This practice saves you time, money, and fertilizer.
Garden stone path with grass growing up between the stones
10. Replenish Vital Nutrients after Heat Stress
With so many benefits that come with watering and starting a full-season lawn fertilization program in the fall, you might think everyone would want to help their lawn recover by feeding it the right nutrients. Unfortunately, many people neglect these two critical treatments.
But necessity is the mother of all inventions. Perma-Green occasionally offers a special incentive created to entice new customers to begin a full-season lawn care program in the fall. It’s a win-win! The new customer’s lawn is assessed and a strategy is customized to fit the unique requirement and goals of the homeowner.
The secret to getting a deal on a full-season program is keeping your eyes open for this Fall Special. I found mine on the Porter County Lawn Fertilizer & Watering Page. Just look for the specials found under “Daly’s Tips.” Another place to keep your eyes open for the Fall Start-Up Special on the Valpo Restaurants website. As a member/sponsor, Perma-Green has a landing page with Valpo’s top chefs. Here is a link. https://valpodining.com/listing/perma-green-lawn-care/
Keep your lawn green in Summer Heat.
It starts where others Finish
Surviving the August and September drought in Northwest Indiana certainly comes with challenges, but as Steve Daly said, the best solutions for reviving a heat-stressed lawn are combining the right lawn care program with best practice watering and mowing. By feeding the soil with the necessary nutrients and water, your lawn will develop strong roots and a healthy lawn environment. It’s critical to keeping your lawn green in summer heat! It also can prepare you for severe weather conditions while defending your yard from intrusive weeds and pests.
Finally, replenish the vital nutrients lost from heat stress. A well-designed full-season lawn package will include the fall fertilizer and winterizer. (also called Winter fertilizer and winter lawn fertilization) Often described as the two most significant lawn treatments, these do more than replenish lost nutrients, they also allow your lawn to have the right nutrients when the snow thaws.
The key to a great lawn in Northwest Indiana is to finish strong!
Steve Daly helps legendary Chef & Farmer-Carlos Rivero of Don Quijote
Perma-Green is certified by the OISC (Office of Indiana State Chemist) to work with fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds, ensuring the safety of your family and pets, truth in labeling, and the protection of our environment.
Written by Jim Jano Janesheski
Helpful links.
- Secrets to Lawn Care Treatments & When to Fertilize
- Perma-Green
- Office of Indiana State Chemist
- Perma-Greens Guide to Lawn Care Programs
Click the image for Guide
