By Luke Rettmann
We sure have had some dry summers here in Minnesota. Drought affected 100% of the state in 2021 and 2023, with 2022 only reaching 80% of the state with drought (Phew! Only 80, right?). A drought does not have to doom your lawn. Your lawn is an investment, just like the rest of your property. A drought simply presents some new decisions to make in order to protect your investment.
Kentucky Bluegrass (what most lawns are) is a cool season plant, so your lawn wants to go green in the spring and fall when it is cool and rainy and will naturally go brown, or dormant, when the summer heat rolls around. So, for the home owners who are either environmentally conscious or budget conscious, not watering is a viable option. Your lawn will green back up when it cools down, barring any complications. If you are concerned that your dormant lawn is actually dead you can check the roots. If they are white with a little green towards the blade instead of brown and brittle then your lawn is, in fact, alive. The only threats to a dormant lawn are lots of foot traffic or grubs from Japanese beetles (more on this below).
Now if you want a green lawn, whether for hosting cookouts, children, or you like the way it looks, the tried and true method is watering. Your lawn needs from 1 to 1.5 inches of water every week. This translates to two 30-45 minute watering sessions. We recommend a sprinkler so that the watering is gradual, and can soak into the soil. We also recommend that you water in the morning or early evening, to avoid the midday sun. Little droplets of water can act like a magnifying glass for the sun's rays and will dry out the blades of grass it is supposed to rejuvenate. We typically water our grass in the early morning twice a week.
Once you are watering, there are additional ways to protect the investment into your lawn to make sure the watering does its job. In no particular order, here are the things we do at Rettmann to make the watering count:
We pride ourselves in being service-oriented and environmentally friendly. Even after 30 plus years, we ourselves are learning better ways to do this. If you have questions about any of the applications in this article, or have something new you would like to ask us about, please give us a call or email us. We are here to care for your lawn so that you can enjoy your investment in it for many years.