Lawn Looking A Little Yellow? 3 Ways To Keep Your Lawn Hydrated This Summer

If you've got grass growing in your yard, it can be a real chore to keep it green during those hot summer months. Proper hydration is the key to a lush, green lawn. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to tell if your lawn is getting the hydration it needs. One way to tell is to look at the edges of your lawn. If the edges of your lawn are starting to turn yellow, it's not getting enough water. Here are several steps you can take to keep your lawn properly hydrated this summer.

Change Your Watering Schedule
If you're watering your lawn in the afternoon, or late evening, you could be harming your lawn. First, watering your lawn in the afternoon could cause serious burns once the sun heats up the water. Second, watering your lawn in the evening could lead to grass rot. That's because the moisture builds up overnight. The best time to water your lawn is early in the morning. Set the sprinklers to turn on first thing in the morning so that the water can soak into the roots and keep them moist all day long.

Aerate the Lawn
If you have an established lawn, the soil could be compacted. If that's the case, your roots aren't getting enough water to keep your lawn hydrated. Soil needs plenty of air for proper water absorption. To aerate your lawn, all you need is a pair of golf shoes – the type with spikes on the soles. Put your golf shoes on and walk around your lawn. Begin by walking in vertical lines back and forth. Next, switch to walking in horizontal lines across the lawn. Finally, finish by walking diagonally across the lawn. The spikes on your golf shoes will aerate the soil so your lawn will stay moist longer.

Elevate the Mower Blades
If you're cutting your lawn short so that you don't need to mow it as often, you could be preventing it from staying hydrated. Shorter lawns allow for more sun absorption, which causes the moisture to evaporate quicker. That means your lawn will dry out quicker. To keep your lawn hydrated this summer, elevate the blades on your lawn mower, and leave your lawn a bit longer. It's also a good idea to leave the clippings in place once you're done mowing. The clippings will help hold in the moisture longer.

Don't let your lawn die this summer. The simple tips provided here will help you keep your lawn hydrated, lush, and green this summer!

If you have a dog and you have a lawn, some damage is inevitable. Whether the damage is in the form of dry yellow-brown spots from urine or it’s in the form of holes dug deeply and rapidly by a motivated pooch, there will be some problems. But there are a few ways to keep that damage to a bare minimum without driving yourself or your best furry friend crazy.

#1- Create a Designated Area
Pet runs are simply fenced off parts of a back or side yard where your dog is free to do whatever he or she wants – run, jump, dig, use as bathroom facilities or just take a nap in the sun. Unless you have a dog who loves to leap tall fences, you can cordon off a part of your yard with relatively cheap materials from your local building supply store. You can even choose a type of fencing that coordinates with the rest of the yard – from wooden stake fencing to picket fencing, from nearly invisible wire to chain link, it’s easy to create an area separated from the rest of the garden.

If you want to let Fido dig away without worrying about the possibility of escape, line the bottom edge of the fence with rocks so that any digging will have to start further from the fence. This should keep your dog busy without allowing him or her to vanish into the neighbor’s yard or onto the street. A distinct advantage to the dog run concept is that you will always know precisely where to look to be able to clean up after your dog with ease. Remember, this is not a pen or a crate – the area has to be large enough for Fido to sniff, get some exercise and play with toys.

#2- Dilute the Area
Any dog owner is familiar with the yellow-brown dead spots in the lawn that appear after the grass has been used for a pee spot. And there are scientific reasons for this: your pet’s urine pH and excess nitrogen. While the concentration of urine (for example, female dogs tend to squat when they pee, completely flooding the one area with urine) also contributes to the problem, it is nitrogen and the urine pH that are the biggest culprits when it comes to unsightly scald spots in the lawn.

Dogs usually have a pH of 6 – 6.5. If it is higher than 7, it will burn the lawn and potentially contribute to your pet developing struvite crystals that can turn into bladder stones which can create painful blockages that have to be treated medically, sometimes surgically. A urine pH of below 6, however, can also create health problems. So consult your vet about what kind of diet would be best to keep your dog’s pH at a healthy and non-burning level.

The method of spraying and washing away the urine spots may be time consuming, but it is an effective measure to avoid a burned law. You can use the hose, a spray bottle or a container of water and dilute the urine immediately after your dog pees.

#3- To Fertilize or Not to Fertilize
It’s always tempting to try to repair a spotty lawn by piling on fertilizers and hoping the green-up effect will take place promptly. The truth is that you need to fertilize your lawn less or with a low-nitrogen fertilizer. If you try to bring back the grass to any scald spots with fertilizers, the nitrogen in the fertilizer can wind up killing what’s left of the grass even faster!

We hope these tips are helpful for restoring your lawn, while also keeping your pup happy!