A heatwave is set to scorch the UK soon, with temperatures in some parts of the country expected to hit 40ºC. Areas of London will even soar to 41ºC. As such, it’s been recommended that Brits cut down their water usage, as a possible hosepipe ban later this year has been forecast.
How to Help Your Lawn Beat the Heat
While loads of us will adore luxuriating in the rays, this extreme weather can be a bother for your lawn and garden plants. Your precious plants may dry out, as may your much-loved lawn. The result? Dry, crispy, and yellow grass.
Thankfully, we’ve pulled together some tips on how to keep your lawn healthy and happy during the heatwave.
Hydrate Your Lawn
Water is the essence of life, but there’s a fine balance between too little and too much watering. We advise watering it three times a week. Assuming there isn’t a hosepipe ban, we’d alsourge you to think about a sprinkler system.
Make sure your lawn has sufficient time to soak up the water throughout the day – we recommend watering grass and flowers in the morning to allow them to drink before it evaporates. If this isn’t possible, do this later in the day, but avoid doing so too late, as water has to dry before night-timerolls around.
Wetting Treatments
You can effortlessly enhance your lawn’s health by thinking about lawn wetting treatments, which we offer at All Green Lawn Treatments as part of a year-round treatment plan. Wetting agents enable more water to soak into the soil, which allows an increased amount of H20 to travel down to your lawn’s root system.
What’s more, wetting agents reduce the drying effect on your lawn by boosting water availability and holding it in the soil profile. Not only this, it cuts down plant stress, enriches root growth and helps reduce fairy rings.
How to Mow Your Lawn When the Heat’s On
Want to know the secret to a truly lush lawn? Raise the blades of your lawn mower. If your lawn is a little longer, the soil is shaded by the grass blades and helps cut down water loss caused by evaporation.
How high or low your grass blades are is down to their root lengths. If the grass is the teeniest bit longer, it gathers additional energy from the sun then its roots use the energy to travel deep into the soil to find the groundwater.
We suggest maintaining a family lawn at roughly 6-10cm in length. While this may sound high, it isn’t – mowing little and often is the key. You’ll be bowled over by how green, flourishing, and delectably cool your lawn will look.
In terms of gathering the clippings in a heatwave, we live by the mantra: “If it’s dry, let them fly.” That is to say, so long as you’re only trimming down your lawn’s height by one centimetre or under (don’t remove over ¼ of the length during a heatwave), it’s absolutely fine to leave off the grass box.
Before long, the little clippings will have dissolved and helped mulch the soil. That said, if you notice large, unpleasant chunks of clipping on your lawn, re-attach the grass box, as the clippings may worsen things.
Aerate in Good Time
Aerate your lawn well ahead of the hot weather. Aeration helps ease compacted soil and encourages oxygen, water, and other minerals to trickle into the ground. Aerating your lawn maintains its health, keeping it drought-tolerant and strong.
We advise core aeration before the drought, as this helps cut down soil compaction and enables more oxygen, water and nutrients to saturate the soil, as opposed to other aeration methods. You can purchase or rent a plug or core aerator and direct it across your lawn to eliminate plugs of soil.
Shift Debris and Lawn Toys Frequently
When the hot weather strikes, it’s vital that your lawn gets enough ventilation. When air flows around the grass blades, plants can transpire. In the gardening world, transpiration is essentially perspiration; it’s the way a plant cools itself down. Obstruct this process, and the grass will literally bake itself.
So, move any lawn items such as paddling pools and picnic mats, not forgetting dog toys, as these can disturb plants’ biological cooling mechanisms if they’re left on the lawn for any lengthy period. Be sure to tidy up your lawn every day and place items back in a different spot the next time you use them.
In the same way, it’s worth regularly changing your course across the lawn so that you avoid creating bare areas. Choose a different bit of the garden to enjoy your daily cuppa. And if your children use a trampoline or slide on the lawn, shift these items a few times a week to give the grass a breather.
If In Doubt, Reach Out
It isn’t unusual for a long-standing lawn to become brown over a long spell of drought. However, if you’re fretting about your lawn’s health, it’s time to reach out to an expert.
At All Green Lawn Treatments, we provide a free lawn analysis, zero long contracts and year-round treatment programs. Our friendly team is always happy to guide people on lawn care and lawn health and provide a variety of treatments to make your lawn look sensational all year long.