In a yr when excessive temperatures and drought hit many components of the nation, our prime yard-care ideas targeted on saving grass from warmth.
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In the USA final yr, the golf course and country club industry had a market measurement of roughly $27.2 billion, a hefty quantity however one which was a fraction of one other turf-dependent sector: landscaping, which tipped the scales at greater than $170 billion. Whereas business grounds, public parks and sports fields accounted for a lot of that determine, yards represented a very good chunk, too.
The purpose being: individuals love rising grass round their houses. And once you love one thing, you fuss over it. And also you hunt down ideas that can assist you preserve it wholesome.
Over the previous yr, on this area, we doled out our share of weekly lawn-care recommendation, drawing on the experience of superintendents. The counsel coated a variety of areas of turf maintenance, and whereas some proved extra in style than others, a handful of the most-read targeted on a scorching subject, actually: defending grass from warmth.
Yeah, we all know. It’s winter. However summer time might be right here earlier than it, and since turf-care ideas, like swing ideas, can take some time to sink in, let’s take a second to evaluate them right here.
1. Keep away from evaporation
Simply as confidence on the course can vanish straight away, so can water droplets on scorching days. Quicker than you possibly can say “evapotranspiration,” they dissipate into skinny air. The takeaway: water on the bookends of the day, earlier than daybreak or simply after sundown, when temperatures are cooler and winds are down. For those who irrigate at excessive midday when the solar is blazing, you’re principally losing a treasured useful resource, a variety of which can both evaporate or blow away within the wind earlier than it even hits the bottom.
2. Goal hassle spots
When grass will get dangerously dehydrated, it begins to discolor. With cool-season grasses, the hue appears lambast blue. Heat-season grasses flip one thing near black. For those who see a troubled patch beginning to type, hand watering — also referred to as spot watering — is the best way to go. Flip your hose immediately on the parched turf, and irrigate till the soil is damp. A fast approach to test is to stay a screwdriver within the floor and see if it comes up moist.
3. Throw shade
Within the searing warmth of summer time, Augusta National units up tents round its greens to guard them from the solar. That’s not a nasty thought. However possibly it strikes you as a bit extreme. A lower-cost and fewer obtrusive choice (learn: much less prone to annoy the neighbors) is to make use of black netting, like the sort superintendents usually use to guard a tee field they’re saving for a event. On the golf course, netting often means “preserve off.” However it could possibly function shade as effectively.
4. Increase your mowing heights
As any superintendent will let you know, the tighter-mown the grass, the extra delicate it’s. The longer it will get, the extra rough-and-tumble it turns into. So let your grass develop to the peak of shaggy tough. Consider it’s a win-win: much less work you. Extra resilience on your garden.
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