A little rain goes a long way!

Wow! It's amazing what a good soaking rain and a return to warm days and cool nights will do for lawns. It didn't matter if lawns were getting watered or not, without rain during the stretch from late May into June most lawns just weren't looking good. You could almost see the grass perking up last weekend when it was raining. Most lawns are returning to normal, although some slower than others....

If you're seeing some brown spots with a red or pinkish tinge, you are probably looking at "red thread". This fungus started during that nasty weather when the grass was drying out. Usually all it takes now is for our early summer fertilizer along with your watering to get the grass growing again and those patches will grow out like growing out a bad haircut!

Summer weather with heat, humidity, and drought is bound to return so prepare by raising your mowing height and getting into a watering routine to make sure your lawn gets at least 1" of water every week. And remember that it helps the lawn when you leave the clippings.

SPRINKLERS

Remember last year? Many people never even started their automatic sprinkler system. Now is the time to check out all the heads to make sure everything is functioning properly.

As we are pulling soil cores on lawns we are finding that many lawns are dry to the full depth of the coring tool. Of the lawns that are getting watered, some are only moist in the top 2-4 inches.

This hot dry spell is similar to the conditions we get in the middle of summer. You may need to add 10 or 15 minutes to the run-time on your sprinklers or if you're using hose and sprinkler let it run a little while longer to be sure that the water is reaching down into the root zone.

If your automatic sprinklers have been running but you see an odd corner that is browning, it's likely that there's a head out of adjustment!