Summer. It’s the time of the year when everything seems to come alive. Concerts, sporting events, holidays, ice cream, and bare feet in the sand...but for our cool-season grasses (lawns) it can be trouble.

During the hot dry summer heat, the soil temperature rises to a point where the cool-season grass stops growing, root growth stops, and the grass enters dormancy. As dormancy starts, parts of your lawn, especially in direct sunlight, begin to brown. A dormant lawn will look very sorry for itself or in some cases, look dead. Dormancy is the lawn's natural mechanism to protect itself from the changes in environment. 

How to stop your lawn from going into dormancy?

 

The good news is that as the weather cools and rain starts to fall, most lawns will recover quite quickly. A good supply of nutrients at this point will also aid in the recovery of the lawn (Importance of the Mr Lawn Summer Feed!!).

 

Watering your lawn will also help mitigate the high temperatures by keeping it cool and roots well hydrated. I often find that clients with irrigation systems, watering twice a day, rarely suffer from brown grass/dormancy. 

This is also the time of the year that you can keep your lawns cut a bit higher than usual. By cutting higher, the plant can store more moisture and nutrients in the leaf. It also aids in stopping the sun from baking the soil. I'm currently cutting lawns at around 6cm. I've also started mulching (leaving the grass clippings on the surface) where possible, to keep the nutrients in the soil.

It is also advisable to water your lawns in the morning (if possible) to avoid the grass staying wet overnight as this can encourage lawn diseases like red thread.

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How to tell if your lawn is dormant or dead?

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Look for a section of brown grass, and pull some by hand. If the grass comes out easily with no resistance, it is dead. At this stage, it is advisable to work out the reason for the grass dying off and fix it. 

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