Texas summers are often hard on lawn grass. Hot weather and water restrictions can stress even the toughest grass. As the summer draws to a close, taking good care of your lawn helps it get through the last few months of heat. Your later summer and fall lawn care is also what’s going to help get your lawn ready for the cooler winter months.
Having a plan for your yearly lawn care helps keep the grass healthy all year round. Depending on the time of year, your mowing, fertilizing, and watering schedules might change. There are also less frequent tasks to keep up with, like weed management and treating damage to the grass.
[imagenumber: 138089576]
1) Keep Mowing Properly
Just like the rest of the year, mowing the right way is important to keeping your lawn healthy. Remember the two most important rules for lawn mowing:
- Mow high.
- Only cut 1/3 of the grass height.
Mowing grass a little higher than usual helps the roots grow deep and healthy. That helps make the grass more drought resistant. It’s also important to only cut 1/3 of the grass’s overall height each time you mow. Cutting more height will stress the grass.
You can mow most warm-season grass when it’s about 3 inches tall and cut it down to 2 inches. Unless you’re treating a lawn disease, leave the cuttings on the lawn so they can return water and nutrients to the soil as they decompose.
2) Manage Water for Lawns
Late summer in Texas is often accompanied by water restrictions. If you are allowed to use water on the lawn, make sure you water early in the morning or close to the evening. That will help minimize water evaporation during hot weather.
Whether your community is restricting water or not, your lawn will stay healthiest if you water deeply and infrequently. Aim for one inch of water per week, including any rainfall. When you water, soak the lawn deeply. If you see runoff, stop watering and wait for the water to soak into the soil before giving the lawn more water.
3) Apply the Right Fertilizer
Continue applying fertilizer throughout the summer and early fall if the grass is actively growing. If you need to stop watering due to drought, also stop fertilizing. Grass that doesn’t have enough water to keep growing won’t need the extra food that comes with fertilizers.
If you apply a commercially available chemical fertilizer, follow the instructions on the packaging as you continue to fertilize the lawn. If you use compost, spread a 1/4- to 1/2-inch layer over the lawn and then lightly rake it into the soil. You can apply compost several times per year. Composting once in the spring after aerating and then once or twice in the summer and early fall works well.
Keep an eye on the weather as summer draws to a close. At some point in the fall, you’ll probably stop fertilizing. Unless your grass is actively growing and the weather is unusually warm, you won’t need to fertilize over the winter months.
[imagenumber: 395292]
4) Hold Off on Seeding and Aerating
You might come across articles suggesting that you aerate your lawn in the fall at about the same time that you’re reseeding bare spots. Those suggestions only apply to northern lawns with cool-season grass. Make sure that you hold off on seeding and aerating until the next growing season starts.
For Texas lawns with warm season grass like Bermuda and zoysia, the best time to aerate is in the late spring or early summer. This is also the best time to plant new lawns or reseed bare spots in old lawns. Warm-season grass is actively growing in the early spring, so that’s the best time to plant new seed or aerate.
5) Keep Weeds in Check
When a warm-season lawn goes dormant over winter, it’s more vulnerable to weeds. Usually, actively growing grass helps keep weeds in check. You won’t have that over the winter, so sometimes the weeds can get out of control. Fighting weeds in late summer and fall helps keep them from taking over a lawn in the winter.
To stop annual weeds like crabgrass, apply a pre-emergent herbicide in late September or early October. Corn gluten meal is an organic alternative to pre-emergents. Make sure you apply before temperatures at night consistently drop below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. To stop perennial weeds like dandelions, post-emergent weed killers are your best option.
6) Stay on the Lookout for Damage and Disease
As you work on a lawn over the summer, keep an eye out for any spots that start looking odd. If the grass is dying, turning weird colors, or just not looking its best it’s time to take steps to figure out what’s wrong.
Sometimes the problem could be as simple as dog urine turning a patch of grass yellow or too much fertilizer burning the leaves. Other times you might be dealing with a turf grass disease. If you think there might be a disease killing your grass, contact your local Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agent or the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab. It’s important to accurately identify a lawn disease before treating it.
Further reading:
- What’s Wrong With My Lawn? How To Identify Common Texas Turf Grass Problems That Aren’t Caused By Disease
- Help! My Lawn Is Dying And I Think It Has A Disease
7) Take Care of Your Lawn Equipment
By late summer, lawn care equipment like mowers and trimmers have seen quite a bit of use over the growing season. Make sure you’re not neglecting routine maintenance during this busy time of the year. Cleaning your equipment regularly will help extend its life and reduce downtime. It might also be time to sharpen mower blades if you use the mower regularly. Also, remember to clean or replace air filters when they become dirty. If your equipment stops working or could use a tune-up, bring it in to our service department and we’ll be happy to help.
If you’re looking for new lawn care equipment, Richardson Saw & Lawnmower can help with that too. We carry lawnmowers, trimmers, spreaders, sprayers, and a variety of other yard equipment to help keep lawns healthy and looking great. We’ll be happy to help you find the perfect tool to fit your needs.
