Summer heat can affect the appearance and condition of your home lawn.

A healthy lawn is your best defence against as it has the ability to tolerate the climate, out-compete weeds, resist pest and disease pressures.

The work you put into getting your lawn healthy will pay dividends when your lawns go under stress.

Some of the stressors that effect your lawn are listed here in these lawn tips.

A lack of food and water

Just like you, your lawn needs food and water to grow well. If either of these are missing, your lawn will struggle.

Fertilisers that make the nutrition all available when first applied have you mowing like crazy for a few weeks, only to see lawn health suffer when the food runs out.

Using a good quality, controlled release lawn fertiliser such as Maintain that meters out the nutrition is key to having the appropriate nutrition available for your lawn.

Mowing too short

If you cut it too short, then your lawn becomes stressed, and the quality of your lawn will decline.

That decline decreases competition, allowing weeds to infiltrate. The lower you mow the more the inputs (food and water) increase, if you want to keep the lawn at its best.

Monitor your mow height and the golden rule of taking off no more than one third of the leaf is applicable if you want to have a well presented, healthy lawn.

Mower blades that damage your lawn

Sharpen your mower blades!

Take a look at the lawn after you’ve cut it. If the cut leaf looks like something has been eating it, then you’re creating opportunities for a decline in the quality and presentation of your lawn.

Overwatering

Just like underwatering your lawn, overwatering can be a problem with lawns for homeowners.

When you overwater, it can discourage your lawn from developing a root system that is deep enough.

It can also cause fungal diseases. Usually, if you are watering a good deep watering once or twice a week, this is sufficient to keep your lawn happy.

Keep in mind if you are putting out a wetting agent like Hydramaxx, you will ensure that you get the best value from the water you apply.

Watering at the wrong time

The other problem is when to water and it does matter.

Many lawn diseases are from fungus because of homeowners’ watering at the wrong time of day. An early morning deep watering is best as the water gets into the ground before the day starts to heat up.

Evaporation is also minimised and you will reduce the chances of a fungal invasion.

Not controlling the weeds

Controlling weeds before they control you is essential for a lawn. Good quality weed control begins with a pre-emergent herbicide.

Once your barrier is down, that stops weeds from invading your lawn, a close inspection of your emerged weed populations will guide you as to what post emergent herbicide to use to tackle the unwanted weeds.

Keep in mind that most grass weeds are very difficult to take out of your lawn so a pre-emergent strategy is always better than trying to implement a weed control strategy after the weeds have already emerged.

Follow these tips to ensure your lawn has the best chance to look great this summer.