Has your lawn has turned brown or straw coloured, there’s no need to worry; pro longed high temperatures and low rainfall is affecting many lawns, turning brown is natural. Established, well-maintained lawns will usually recover once adequate rainfall returns.
The team at Greener Gardens have compiled a summary of FAQ’s
1. How will the brown grass become green?
When sufficient rain comes, the lawns will recover from the crown, so unlike most other plants grasses have evolved to grow not from their tips, but from their base, close to the roots. The grass crown contains numerous buds that can produce new shoots called tillers. These develop their own root system and can quickly turn into independent plants. Our drought safe lawn feed will help reduce the recovery period.
2. Should I water?
Some experts say “yes”, most insist on “not”. An established lawn does not need to be watered routinely. In fact, letting a lawn search for its own supply of water will encourage roots to go deeper and seek out moisture. This will benefit the lawn’s health in the long term.
3. What about mowing?
If the grass is not growing, do not mow low! Once growth resumes, mow regularly again. It is good practice to raise the summer cutting height slightly, tidying up the lawn. Leaving your lawn a little longer, will allow deeper roots to grow and help trap moisture by reducing evaporation from the surface, which will improve drought tolerance. It will also help your lawn to keep a greener appearance by leaving more of the green leaf visible.
What are we expecting during the recovery period?
It’s been reported that the grass on our lawns is one of the most adaptable and hardy plants in existence. It will recover when sufficient rainfall occurs, however, below are our thoughts for attention that your lawn may require during the autumn to get it back into tip top condition.
Weeds…
The hot dry weather will spring dormant seeds back into life, we will be reviewing how we can adjust our treatment programme to address any weeds with a broad spectrum control during our autumn treatments, which will commence early September.
Bare Patches… These could be the result of either:
- Traffic damage
- Heavy traffic on a stressed dormant lawn may cause damage to the crown of the grass plant. We will be carrying grass seed on the vans to assist with repairs, we recommend “Green Velvet All Rounder”.
Dry patch
These will be brown patches in the lawn, which are not returning to green. In its simplest explanation, ‘dry patch’ is mycelium in the soil, which is repelling water, causing the area not to re wet and grass to remain dormant. We recommend that lawns affected by ‘Dry Patch’ would benefit from hollow tine aeration and the application of a soil improver treatment in autumn and repeated in spring.
Red Thread
This is often seen on lawns normally from mid-summer through to and including autumn. It is spread by spores within the air and often seen on fine fescue lawns, but can develop on all lawn types.
It is a fairly minor disease, which in most cases does relatively little damage. It can leave patches of turf in a ‘straw like’ brown condition, which can leave the entire lawn with an all over unsightly mottled effect. Studied closely you may see red needles or pink ‘cotton-wool’ like growth on the affected areas. This is the manifestation of the fungus. More often than not, the disease will run its course and as the turf grows the disease becomes less obvious, it is very rare for the disease to be deemed worthy of specialist treatment. Our autumn feed will often be enough to help outgrow the condition.
Helping with recovery?
Our lawns have endured a lot in the six months of this year, from rain, frosts, snow and now heat and drought.
We recommend the following for improved root development:
- Aeration
- Soil Improver
- Over Seed
Hope this update helps.
The team at Greener Gardens