Your lawn can really struggle during the summer months. If the temperatures get too high, what was a lush, springy green lawn can soon turn into a crispy, dry mess. So, what’s going on, and is this normal? Well, many different things could be going on, resulting in your grass turning brown in summer. Therefore, to better understand what’s happening to your lawn, you’ll need to look at each of the different reasons.
Why Am I Seeing Brown Grass in the Summer? (The Short Answer)
Brown grass in summer can result from a combination of different factors, such as dormant law, heat stress, lack of water, nutrient deficiency, and over-mowing. When your lawn turns brown in summer, it is weak, and issues such as lack of aeration, thatch, disease, and pests become more of a concern.
7 Possible Reasons for Brown Spots in Grass in Summer
Dormant Summer Grass
The first thing to consider is your grass type. Many different grass types don’t handle heat well and have a natural reaction to go dormant. For example, cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass and fine fescues go dormant in high temperatures. So, depending on what grass you have in your lawn, the browning might just be your lawn telling you that it is going dormant and protecting itself from the heat.
Heat Stress
If you have a particular grass type that can handle extreme heat, your lawn will react better during the hot summer months. But even though warm-season grasses like St. Augustine, Zoysia, and Bahia may be immune to high temperatures, they still have limits, so if your summer is unusually hot for extended periods, even warm-season grasses will turn brown as a result of heat stress.
Lack of Water
Hot summers and lack of water go hand in hand and can be a real problem for your lawn. You’ll probably find that with your usual watering schedule, the top few inches of the soil will dry out in just a day or so. So, drought will be one of the top reasons your lawn has brown grass in summer. If your lawn is dry, then your grass won’t be able to feed.
Nutrient Deficiency
When your lawn is either stressed or dormant, you may think it isn’t growing or doing much. Well, your lawn is actually working much harder than normal. To enable the extra effort, your lawn needs a steady supply of nutrients. Nutrients rely on soil moisture to make their way down to the roots.
So, there could be nutrients in your soil, but a lack of water, or you could have water and no nutrients. To make sure your grass is being fed, you’ll need to make sure both of the elements are addressed.
Hydrophobic Soil
One of the side effects of hot summers is a condition called hydrophobic soil. This is when the soil beneath your lawn cannot absorb water due to poor soil mixture, dry soil, and excessive heat. When this happens, your lawn turns brown because it can’t absorb water and nutrients efficiently.
Thatch
Lawn thatch can cause several issues and can contribute to brown spots in the grass in summer. Some thatch-related problems are increased soil temperatures, water absorption, restricted airflow, and a thriving habitat from pests, disease, and fungi. Excessive thatch can increase the rate at which your lawn turns brown during the hot summer months.
Over Mowing
It may sound strange to some, but sometimes it’s a good idea to stop mowing during the summer. People with warm-season grass are used to mowing from spring through to fall and sometimes throughout the year. However, you guys with cool-season grasses are likely aware that it is necessary to take a break during the hottest and coldest parts of the year. This is because your lawn is dormant, and mowing dormant grass is a bad idea.
How to Fix Brown Grass in the Summer (5 Things to Try)
Even though several factors could lead to your lawn turning brown during the summer, there are only a few things you can do. Here are two steps you can take that will help your lawn turn green and springy.
Reduce Mowing
If your grass is turning brown in summer, you should first put your lawn mower back in the shed. There is definitely no sense in putting your lawn under any more stress. Going from mowing every week to every other week, once a month, or not at all is a sensible approach. If your lawn is still growing but obviously struggling, it is a good idea to increase the height of the cut on your lawn mower. This will give the lawn a better chance of recovery.
Adjust Your Watering Schedule
The next item to look at is how much you water your lawn. Most of us are limited to how much water we can use and when we can water by our state/country/city ordinances. But there are a few adjustments that you might be able to address.
For example, you might be able to reduce the watering on a shaded part of the lawn and increase the watering time on the part of the lawn in the full sun. Also, reduce the watering to shrubs with deep roots for a few minutes and add this time to the full sun part of the lawn. Finally, if you can, use the grey water from your home as an additional water source.
Slow Release Fertilizing
Adding a slow-release fertilizer to a heat-stressed lawn, such as Scott’s Turf Builder Ultra Feed, will enrich the soil slowly over several weeks and help restore your lawn’s health. This type of fertilizer only becomes available to the grasses roots when both the soil temperature and moisture content are right. The fertilizer won’t help the lawn immediately, but it will put in place the provisions for a quick recovery.
So, use a fertilizer spreader to apply the slow-release fertilizer as per the product instruction. Then give your lawn a good watering to prevent the fertilizer from burning your lawn and turning it even browner.
Tools and Materials Required to Apply Slow-Release Fertilizer
- Slow Release Fertilizer
- Fertilizer Spreader
- Watering Systems
Aerate Your Lawn
Aeration is really a task you should do during early spring and late summer/fall. But if your lawn is struggling to absorb water, air, and nutrients, aeration will definitely help. If you notice your lawn turning brown, aerate it as soon as possible, and don’t leave it too late, as aeration will cause additional stress and potentially cause more issues.
You can use a spike or core aerator to aerate your lawn.
Tools to Aerate a Lawn
- Spike Aerator or a Core Aerator
Stay Off the Lawn
My final tip is to stay off your lawn as much as possible while it suffers from heat stress. Walking on your lawn will stress the grass and cause the plant to shift energy toward blade recovery. Walking on the lawn during this time is as bad as cutting the lawn. So, limit how much you use your lawn and keep pets in a different area.
How NOT to Fix Brown Grass in the Summer
Now that we have covered how to fix brown grass in summer, let’s go over what you shouldn’t do.
Quick Release Fertilizing
Grass that is heat stressed or dormant shouldn’t be quick-release fertilized. This is because the sudden boost of food will bring the grass out of its dormant stage potentially too quickly and cause issues. A slow trickle of nutrients from slow-release fertilizer is ok, but quick-release fertilizer is a definite no.
Dethatching
If you are concerned with the amount of thatch in your lawn, then detaching would be the perfect solution. But not if your lawn is dormant or stressed. Grabbing your lawn dethatcher when your lawn is dormant or stressed will result in damage that your lawn might not recover from. If anything, you’ll probably remove all the tops of the grass and many of the roots. Dethatching is definitely not a solution for how to fix brown grass in summer.
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