One of the big challenges facing Texas homeowners is keeping their lawns green during the hot summer and into the fall as the weather starts to cool. Don’t wait until summer, though, to start taking care of the grass. A green summer lawn starts with good spring lawn care.
Warm-season grasses like Zoysia and Bermuda grass can stay green all summer, but they’ll need a little help. If your goal is a nice green lawn that looks good for as much of the year as possible, here are five lawn care and maintenance tips to help you achieve that.
1) Pay Close Attention to Water
Like most plants, grass needs water to stay green and growing. This is probably the number one thing you think of when you think of how to keep a lawn green. However, it’s often one of the most challenging lawn maintenance tips to follow when you live in an area with water restrictions over the summer.
The good news is that lawns don’t need a huge amount of water to stay healthy. You just need to water them deeply and regularly. About an inch of water per week is going to do the trick. Watering in the early morning or late afternoon before evening can help prevent water loss to evaporation. Installing a smart irrigation system that changes the amount of water your lawn gets based on weather conditions is also a good way to conserve water while keeping your lawn green.
2) Be Careful How You Mow
One of the best things you can do for your lawn is to make sure you’re mowing it correctly. Often, people are tempted to mow grass super short to try and stretch out the time between mowings. But doing that stresses your lawn, making it more susceptible to drought. Mowing the grass high (about 2 inches tall for most grass) helps the grass develop a deep root system that will keep it green and healthy.
You’ll also want to follow the 1/3 rule of mowing. You should only cut off 1/3 of the overall grass height each time you mow. If you want to keep the grass at 2 inches tall, then you should mow when it gets to be 3 inches tall. You can also mulch your lawn clippings when you mow, which will help return water and nutrients to the soil. Mowing high, mowing only 1/3 of the grass at a time, and mulching clippings will all help the grass stay green and healthy.
3) Make Sure You Aerate
As we use our lawns throughout the year, the soil under the grass becomes compacted. Foot traffic, lawn mowing, rainfall, and other everyday things all work together to compact the soil. This is a problem for grass because tightly compacted soil doesn’t leave much room for water, nutrients, and air to get down to its roots. It also makes it harder for the grass to grow new roots.
Aeration fixes soil compaction. To aerate, use a core aerator tool on the lawn once a year. The aerator removes small plugs from the soil, opening up the soil and preventing the problems that come with soil compaction. In Texas, lawns typically have warm-season grasses (like Bahia, Bermuda, and Zoysia) that benefit from yearly aeration in the late spring or early summer. If you have a cool-season grass in your lawn (like Texas bluegrass or ryegrass) instead, aerate in the fall.
4) Keep the Weeds Out
Easier said than done, I know, but if you can keep weeds from taking over your lawn then the grass will be much healthier. Weeds crowd out grass and steal nutrients, making it harder for the lawn to stay nice and green.
Mowing high, watering deeply and infrequently, and aerating every year will help keep your grass healthy enough to keep a lot of weeds out of your lawn. For the ones that still creep in though, you have a few different options for getting rid of them. Chemical herbicides are a go-to solution for many homeowners and lawn care companies. These will reliably destroy weeds in the lawn, and selective herbicides can kill weeds without harming grass.
Organic options include pulling by hand or digging weeds out with a hand trowel (only recommended if you have very few weeds) and natural “herbicides” like corn gluten meal. You can find organic herbicides for sale online and in many stores, or DIY your own. Just keep in mind that most DIY weed killers will kill any plants, including your grass, so you need to be careful when applying them.
5) Fertilize The Right Way at the Right Time
Lawn grass needs specific nutrients to stay green and growing, but too much at once can burn the grass. Conventional wisdom says that you shouldn’t fertilize too late in the growing season otherwise you’ll end up with fast growth right before fall dormancy. However, new research on growing Bermudagrass indicates that fall fertilization can actually help keep the lawn lush over winter.
If you fertilize with a commercially prepared fertilizer, make sure that you get a slow-release blend. This will ensure that the nutrients are available for your lawn over an extended period of time rather than burning the grass or running off during a rain shower. You can also top-dress the soil with compost. Compost might be the only fertilizer you use if you want an entirely organic solution, or you can replace one of your commercial fertilizer applications with compost. Always read and follow label directions carefully. The time-release fertilizer you buy will have guidelines for when to apply the next round of fertilizers.
The Right Tool for the Job
Having the right tool for these lawn care tasks can make a world of difference. A good mower is going to ensure that you get a nice clean cut on the grass and one with a mulching deck means that you can leave the clippings on the lawn without them detracting from the way that your lawn looks. For applying herbicides and fertilizer a sprayer or spreader will make the job easy and ensure that you get an even application on the lawn. A court aerator is an essential tool for reducing soil compaction but for homeowners, it’s probably going to be prohibitively expensive to buy one when you can just rent it once a year. However, if you run a lawn care business the importance of aerating your customer’s lawns will justify the purchase of an aerator for your lawn care fleet.
When you’re looking for good quality equipment, stop by Richardson Saw & Lawnmower. We carry a wide range of the highest quality brands for homeowners and commercial lawn care, and our expert team will be happy to answer any questions you have and help you find just the right tool to keep your Texas lawn greener all year round.
