The key to keeping your lawn green and beautiful year-round is to care for it with consistency and understanding that lawn needs change with the seasons. The end of summer brings Texas sweltering hot weather with the potential to burn your lawn and garden.
Whether you hire a professional to take care of your outdoor spaces, or you decide to take care it yourself, there are a few important bits of information that will make a vast difference between a lush and dry lawn.
Irrigation:
- Water your lawn in the morning rather than at night. It helps ward off fungal diseases that appear and get exacerbated by nighttime watering.
- Keep your sprinkler systems maintained. It will give you peace of mind that you are watering efficiently and effectively. A broken or misaligned sprinkler head can waste water and money.
- Water 3 or 4 times a week.
- When watering most plants, water deeply to encourage deeper root growth.
Pruning:
- August to February is a good time to prune red oaks and live oaks
- Prune deadhead flowering plants
- Lightly prune perennials and roses to encourage fall blooming.
- Cut stalks of plants like coneflower to the rosette.
Fertilize:
- Flowers and vegetables
- Container annuals
- Citrus with high nitrogen fertilizer like Citrus-tone. Fertilize every few weeks through the growing season
Insects:
- Watch for aphids and spider mites. It’s easy to spray them off with a hard blast of water. Be sure to get the undersides of the leaves.
- Aphids and other insects can create a sooty mold on plants, a fungus that develops from their secretions. Wash off the culprits and the leaves. Remove damaged leaves to the trash (not the compost pile).
Lawn Maintenance:
- Keep the grass longer than you would in colder seasons. Do not remove more than 1/3 of the top at a time to keep the roots from burning in the sweltering sunlight.
- Leave clippings on the lawn to fertilize naturally.
- Keep the grass long in August to avoid weed seeds germinating in the colder wetter September weather.
Prepare for Fall:
- Start planning the fall garden. Clean up debris in the vegetable garden. Apply compost and mix in slow-release granular fertilizer to get ready for fall plantings.
- Explore native wildflower seeds to plant this fall
- Think about next spring and the perennializing bulbs to add this fall
