Garden City lawn care services
Water correctly: Garden City gets more rain (46 inches) than the US average (28 inches). However, in Nassau County, rainfall is lower, and its climate favors cold-season grasses (grasses that thrive during cold periods). Turfs in this region may not survive the hot summers if not adequately fed.
Warm-season grasses can tolerate an extended period of drought, even growing from spring through summer and into early fall, blossoming beautifully under the scorching heat. Unfortunately, this grass type isn't suitable for the predominantly cold weather of Garden City. Worse yet, cold-season grasses that suit this terrain will not grow in the summertime; they go through summer dormancy.
Dormancy means that grasses stop growing and turn tan until the water becomes available in late summer or fall. Then they regenerate. If you want your lawn to look lush in the summer, it's imperative you water wisely.
Here are a few tips for watering lawns in Garden City in the summer.
Irrigating: Irrigate at least one inch per week at the start of summer, then increase as it becomes hotter. It's recommended to water deeply and infrequently (like once every four or five days) to enable your grasses to develop deep root systems. Lastly, irrigate lawns in the morning or evening to prevent evaporation and further heating of the soil.
Follow good mowing practices: Your cold-season grasses will experience heat/drought stress and won't grow as tall in the hottest parts of summer. So, you may not need to mow very often. However, summer weeds like white clover, ground ivy, and dandelions will start flowering and producing seeds at this time. So on the contrary, you will need to take them out by mowing and frequently clipping to manage their population/spread.
With the right care, your cool-season grass may experience a little growth in the summer. If you want the best results, follow this advice:
Mow no less than 3 to 4 inches or as high as your blade can go to decrease heat and drought stress along with providing shade for the soil to reduce temperature and moisture loss. You should also keep your mower blade sharp to cut the turf efficiently. A dull blade will create ragged, brown edges that provide an opening for disease and fungal infections. Lastly, it will save you stress and money if you opt for professional mowing services instead.
Do not fertilize: It's best not to fertilize lawns in the summer. Fertilizing cool-season grasses during summer increases the turf's need for moisture and reduces its ability to adapt to high temperatures.
To make it worse, applying fertilizers, especially the quick-release type, will burn your grasses or create growth with a poor root system that won't survive the summer. We suggest that you stop fertilizing Garden City lawns thirty days before summer arrives.
The best time to fertilize your lawn is fall. Adequate fertilization in fall or spring will enable your grasses to develop deep root systems that will tough out the drought. The wisest option is to hire fertilization experts through Garden City lawn care to conduct a soil test and apply the right type and amount of fertilizer your lawn needs for the best growth.
Control insects: Grubs and chinch bugs are the most common summer insects in Garden City. Grubs are the larvae of Japanese beetles, chafers, June beetles, and others. Symptoms of a grub attack include irregularly shaped patches or dead grasses with no roots. The presence of grubs doesn't necessarily mean doom. In fact, if there are only 15 grubs per square-inch, you shouldn't worry. However, with a higher population, they will start to feed on the roots, and full eradication will only be possible in late summer.
Chinch bug invasion is characterized by small yellow patches becoming a large section of damaged turf. Parting the grass at the edge of these yellow spots will reveal the culprit - a black, dark-winged, fire ant-looking insect with silvery bands.
To protect your lawn from pests, start by keeping it clean. You can get yard cleanup and gutter cleaning from Garden City lawn service to maintain the serene environment insects don't particularly like. Also, follow correct watering and fertilizer application practice (as discussed earlier) to prevent large-scale invasion.
Control weeds: Summer is the best time to curb weed growth in Garden City. If you don't, they'll blossom and spread in the coming year. As broadleaf weeds are most typical to this terrain, you should use herbicides designed to take out this weed type. However, you must be careful. We recommend you hand-pull the weeds yourself, but this will require frequent inspection. A fantastic alternative is to contact Garden City lawn service for spot-treatment of those weeds. Your provider will have the relevant experience and knowledge of herbicide selection/application and won't have any problem carrying out the task.
Diseases: The most common summer diseases in Garden City are caused by fungi. Some include brown patches, summer patches, and dollar spots. It's worth mentioning that your turf must meet three conditions before lawn diseases can develop. First is a pathogen presence in and around the soil. Your grass type must be susceptible to this pathogen. Lastly, the environmental conditions must be right for the disease to grow.
With good lawn care practices, you can totally avoid summer diseases and get an all-year-round healthy lawn.
For a start, we encourage you to use weed-treated fertilizers. Secondly, seed disease-resistant grasses (consult seeding experts through Garden City lawn care for more information). Finally, maintain a clean environment to discourage pathogens from thriving in your lawn.
