Drought and your lawn during dry periods
See also: Lawn Care Advice
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During periods of dry weather turf and lawns can suffer drought stress, this stress is accelerated and exaggerated when the dry period is also hot. The lawn will become pale green, yellow/brown and patchy, all these symptoms are normal under these conditions.
How can you decrease the risk of drought stress?
If the grass is healthy and dark green, normally very little or no water is required in northern Europe, even during a short dry period. However during periods when the lawn shows signs of drought stress, as described above, water can be applied.
How often and how much should you water?
If there is no rain, the lawn should be watered twice a week. It is best to water heavily to allow real penetration into the soil rather than "little and often" which encourages shallow rooting and a weaker plant. See hollow tine aeration.
What else can be done to reduce the impact or speed recovery?
A few things can be done to lessen the impact of drought stress:
- Increasing the cutting height, and always cutting with sharp blades, will help to preserve more moisture in the turf and leave the grass looking greener longer.
- Hollow tine aeration will greatly aid speed and depth of penetration of moisture into the turf when raining or irrigation is used.
- Greensleeves feed will greatly speed to rate of recovery and the return to a lush green grass cover when applied.
For more information about dealing with drought and its causes, please contact Greensleeves Lawn Care.
See also: Lawn Care Advice