What Happens To Arizona Grass In The Summer?
One strand of grass is small, but all the grass you have in your lawn amounts to a lot. Altogether, grass can make a lawn look beautiful. When summer comes around and the Arizona heat beats down on our lawns, it can kill all summer grass that makes your lawn look as good as it does.
The Arizona heat can dry out your lawn, turning all the moisture that your grass thrives on to mist that it can’t live on. As the grass dries out, it’ll brown over, and eventually die. It makes the lawn you’ve spent so much time working on look unappealing. In some ways, it's more difficult to bring back a dead lawn than it is to start a new one.
Rather than let your grass die with the summer heat, we can work with materials and tools from Pioneer Landscaping Centers to keep your grass alive through the summer.
BEFORE SUMMER: HOW TO CARE FOR ARIZONA GRASS
Don’t wait till the summer begins. There are some tactics you can implement to prepare your lawn for the heat of the summer.
FERTILIZE YOUR GRASS AT THE END OF SPRING
This gives your grass a boost to grow back thick and healthy. When the heat hits, the grass will have that extra boost to better stand up against it and hold more nutrients. You can fertilize with mulch and compost to avoid overfertilizing. If you overfertilize your lawn, you’ll burn it before the summer heat has a chance to.
MOW HIGH AS THE TEMPERATURE RISE
For warm-season grass, you want to mow your lawn to 2-3 inches, and 3-4 for cold-season grass. This will provide more shade to help prevent weeds from growing and stealing moisture from your grass. The shade will also improve the overall heat tolerance of your grass strands.
KILL THOSE WEEDS
We’re still in the winter season, so there are still winter weeds you should be looking out for, in addition to the summer weeds that are coming. These will eat at the moisture in your lawn and leave nothing left for your grass. You can thoroughly remove weeds with spades and rakes. The last thing you want to do is to leave even a little bit of the weed behind so it can reproduce and grow across your lawn.
DURING SUMMER: HOW TO CARE FOR ARIZONA GRASS
After prepping your lawn for the summer, you need to take extra care of it while the summer is in full swing. Arizona grass isn’t going to survive off of natural rain alone.
USE A LOT OF WATER INFREQUENTLY
During the summer, you need to take extra care that the grass is being watered. You want to water it deeply so that there’s water deep in the roots even, in the extreme heat. To water deeply, the water has to reach 4-6 inches down. You also want to do this infrequently because if you water deeply and keep watering, you’ll be one of the few people to drown your lawn during the summer.
If you’re unsure of when to water your lawn, you can use the screwdriver test. Take a screwdriver, stick it down into the lawn, and if you meet a lot of resistance, it's time to water the lawn. Plan to water your lawn once or twice a week.
AERATE YOUR LAWN
Towards the end of the summer, you want to have your lawn aerated. This is the home stretch, but don’t rest on your laurels, your summer grass isn’t safe yet. Use a core aerator or an aeration service. This will create holes and air vents in the ground, giving your grassroots better access to air, nutrients, and water. After the long summer, your lawn is likely to be compact and tough, which can suffocate your grass if not given the proper treatment.
PROTECT YOUR SUMMER GRASS WITH PIONEER LANDSCAPING CENTERS
Whether it's fertilizer, landscaping tools, or landscaping tips, you can rely on the experts at your local Pioneer Landscaping Centers for help. We can help you figure out what you need to give your lawn to give it the best chance of surviving through the summer. Even during the summer, if you need help, we’ll be here to help you. Contact us and our experts today!