Is it too late to save your lawn?

Is your lawn looking rough? Patchy turf, brown and yellow patches and thinning grass? These are all typical sights when the temperature starts rising.

But don’t blame yourself - your lackluster lawn might not just be suffering from the summertime blues. There could be a more serious problem.

The American summer can be brutal for your lawn and landscape. With temperatures increasing year on year – 2010 is set to be the hottest since records began – the sight of wilted, yellow lawns is becoming an increasingly common one.

There are several things you can do to give your grass an edge during July and August: Trim your grass less frequently, cut it slightly longer and water frequently with a sprinkler system. But if those aren’t keeping your grass green, you might have a more serious problem to worry about.

Summertime is often when grass and turf gets hit hardest by fungal diseases. These infections go undetected for most of the year – until your grass is at it’s weakest.

After baked in the summer sunshine, grass is less able to fight off these fungal spores and that’s why you’ll suddenly see a rash of ugly looking lawns – all suffering from fungal diseases normally kept in check by the weather.

There are a host of common infections - anthracnose basel rot, foliar blight and summer patch to name some of the better known ones. Some can be treated with fungicides - but often by the time symptoms show, it’s too late.

This is why it’s worth thinking about your lawn long before the weather heats up. If you want gleaming green grass for 4^th July, you’d best start planning the previous fall.

A lawn care specialist like Aspenn Environmental Services will be able to develop a year-round program tailored to your lawn – incorporating pest and insect control, fungal treatments, lawn aeration and fertilizing. Just a few regular treatments during the rest of the year can virtually guarantee a beautiful lawn for when you want to enjoy it most.