7 Tips for Summer Lawn Care Maintenance

Is your lawn looking a little run down? Looking to bring it back to life? In need of some summer lawn care maintenance tips?

You’re in the right place! Below, we’re going to provide you with 7 landscaping tips, helping to give your yard that healthy green look it so deserves. Let’s get into it!

1. Remove Weeds Promptly

Nothing impairs the look of a lawn faster than a weed. Weeds disturb lawn symmetry and generally look pretty ugly in doing so.

Unfortunately, weeds spread quickly. Allowing a single weed to exist could soon result in more weeds sprouting up around it. Soon enough, you’ll be dealing with an entire weed infestation, one that hurts the quality of your grass.

As such, as soon as you see a weed pop up in your yard, you need to pull it out. Rip out the roots and ensure that it’s removed entirely. You could also consider using a weed killer, though you need to make sure to choose one that won’t hurt your grass…and that is approved to use in your local area.

2. Aerate

Grassroots are located fairly far down below the surface of the soil. As such, oxygen can sometimes have trouble reaching them. This is an issue, as grass needs ample oxygen to thrive.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. That solution is aeration. This is the process of removing small chunks of soil; it’s performed with the use of an aerator and works to let oxygen down below the soil’s surface so that it can reach grassroots.

In addition, aeration pulls up new minerals and nutrients, allowing them to feed the grass and help it grow stronger. By aerating your lawn at the beginning of every summer, you can greatly improve the health and quality of your grass, making it as green and as visually appealing as possible.

We recommend performing this service in the Fall at the minimum and Spring and FAll for better effectiveness paired alongside our aeration service.

3. Water It in the AM

If you want your lawn to have the greenest, healthiest look possible, you need to water it regularly. And in the summertime, you should water it in the AM, specifically. In other words, you need to water it in the morning.

Why is it important that you water it in the morning? Because the sun is not at full force yet. As such, the water has a chance to make its way down into the soil without evaporating. Once in place, it can work its magic all day long.  Watering too late at night can promote lawn diseases and fungi due to the excessive moisture remaining on the lawn overnight.

If you water your grass at, say, 1 PM, much of the water will evaporate immediately and can also stress the lawn if it’s really hot out. So, while the grass would still benefit somewhat, its overall benefit would be much reduced.

We recommend watering your grass between 6 AM and 10 AM, with a little leeway on each side. Do this religiously, and your lawn is bound to look great.

*An irrigation or sprinkler system on a timer or weather-based app will due WONDERS to properly water the lawn and garden at the appropriate times of the day AND when it hasn’t been raining much in the area.

4. Sharpen Your Mower Blade

Perhaps the biggest aspect of caring for a lawn is the time to mow it regularly. It doesn’t really matter what type of lawnmower you use (it does but that could be another article). It just has to be cut evenly and often.

And that’s where our next tip comes in: sharpen your mower blade. A dull mower blade will cut through a good majority of the grass it comes across but will leave some grass uncut. This will ultimately leave the yard looking rough and untidy.  Not only do frayed grass blades appear “off” after the cut, but it also leaves the turfgrass open to more lawn diseases and/or summer heat stress.

So, how do you sharpen a mower blade? You can start by using this guide. If you’re not interested in sharpening your mower blade, you’ll either need to buy a new lawnmower or hire someone to landscape your yard. If you opt for the latter solution, we can help you.

5. Have Your Soil Tested

If you want the best lawn possible, your soil must contain the right nutrients, not to mention a favorable pH balance. How do you ensure that it does? By having your soil tested.

We recommend testing your soil once a year. Testing is offered by many universities, not to mention a variety of private companies as well. So, contact one of these organizations and go through with the process.  Or call BAMS.

Once you get the results back, you’ll know what you have to do to optimize your soil. You might have to artificially add more nutrients, or you might have to counteract excess lead, or you might have to add extra fertilizer.

6. Fertilize, but carefully.

At the beginning of every summer season, we recommend adding fertilizer to your yard. Doing so will replenish the nutrients in your soil, giving your grass everything it needs to grow.

There are both organic and synthetic fertilizers available, both of which provide benefits. That said, synthetic fertilizers are generally easiest for homeowners to get their hands on.

If you’re unable to fertilize your lawn on your own, call up your local landscaping company. They’ll provide your lawn with all of the nutrients it could ever need. There are many other factors a lawn care provider would consider before a summer fertilizer application and may opt NOT to fertilize in the summer to prevent further stress to the turfgrass when temps are higher for example.

7. Set Your Lawnmower at the Correct Height

The length of your lawn should depend mainly on the type of grass as well as a little on the time of the year. If your lawn is too long for a given season, it will struggle to obtain the necessary amount of sunlight, water, and nutrients. If you mow your lawn too short, you risk scalping it, causing both growth damage and, well, an ugly aesthetic.

Unless your lawn is a warm-season lawn (zoysia) your best bet is to aim for the highest push mower setting when it is hot out for most cool-season lawns in the area.  When the temps cool down, the root system begins most of its growth so cutting much shorther can be done during Spring/Fall, just be careful cutting too low because it exposes much of the ground surface to sunlight allowing a weed presence to take hold if not treated on a routine basis.

Need Lawn Care Maintenance in Kensington, MD?

• Is your lawn looking worse for wear and tear?
• Need lawn care maintenance in Kensington, MD?

If so, we here at BAM’S Landscaping are the people to see.

We’re well-versed in lawn care and maintenance and help countless clients to achieve a green and inviting lawn and/or garden.

Whatever your landscaping needs, our team can help. ALL of our TURF programs include a FULL SOIL ANALYSIS!

Contact us today to discuss your needs!