It is time to get out the sunscreen and get your summer lawn care maintenance program moving to the sunny beat.
Our lawns see a lot of action during these warmer months.
As a result, the summer care required is the same everywhere except that some places will need to ensure that some steps take a little extra time.
With summer comes vacations and the kids are out of school.
This means time away from your lawn and heavy foot traffic the rest of the time.
There are hotter temperatures and more pests that are looking for a cool spot to get away from the heat.
Summer lawn care can be super easy with a little maintenance done once a week.
In the summer, the grass is still growing.
Typically a once a week mowing will be just fine.
You don't want to cut it too short otherwise the grass will burn from the sun.
In addition, keeping the grass a little longer will help keep some of the moisture in the ground that your lawn needs as the hot afternoons heat up.
When mowing, if you can, try to mow in different directions each time.
There are a number of ways you can mow.
You can mow left to right or you can mow from the street to the house and back or you can mow on an angle.
What about mowing around the perimeter and then just keep going around and around until you get to the center? It doesn't matter the pattern as long as it is mowed differently.
If you do, then the grass is being cut in a different direction each time and will actually be healthier in the long run.
Watering is an extremely important part of summer lawn care.
Before you do start watering, be sure you know the water restrictions are for the coming season.
This is really helpful when resetting your automatic sprinkler system.
Should you water in the morning or the evening? This depends upon who you ask.
If you water in the morning, this will rejuvenate the lawn for the day ahead.
If you water at night, you can hydrate your lawn from the heat that was experienced during the day.
If you have super high temperatures, you could water in the early morning and then again at night but for not as long.
This may or may not be good for your lawn or soil so you would need to "test" this process for several days to determine if it will work for you.
Of course, you wouldn't want to do this when the availability of water is at a minimum.
In addition, if you do need to water so often, you may want to consider other alternatives for a yard other than grass.
Fertilizing shouldn't be necessary as you did that in the spring and you will do it again in the fall.
You may want to hand out some weed killer when necessary but other than that you should be good to go.
You shouldn't have to spend your summer working hard on your lawn.
Spending a couple of hours each weekend will ensure that your summer lawn care will be simple and productive at the same time.