Did you know that a lawn can be prepared to be drought resistant?

[NNN0LHI]

Mine has stayed green all the way through this drought we are experiencing. It never browned out this year even with one of the worst droughts on record.

Want to know how it is done?

The most important thing is to fertilize it in the spring. Not over fertilized. Just enough so that it is capable of developing a good root system.

Then I set the height adjustment on the deck on my lawn mower as high as it will go. I never cut my lawn short during the summer. All my neighbors lawns are brown and dead looking right now. They have more weeds than lawn now.

I have one neighbor who has a built in sprinkler system who waters his lawn all night long. Even his is dying. But he likes keeping it cut about the same height as a putting green on a golf course.

The reason his is dying out is that when he cuts it so low his lawn can no longer maintain a viable root system. Works like this. If your grass is 2 inches tall the root system will only be only about 2 inches deep. He can water all night long but it won't help. Once the sun is out for a few hours there is no water left at 2 inches deep. It is deeper because the water near the top where his his lawns roots are at has been heated by the sun into humidity and the short roots can't reach the water further down below where there is still water available. The water is there but the roots of the lawn can't reach it by the hottest time of the day. So it burns up and dies.

If your lawn is 2 inches tall the roots will be only 2 inches deep. If your lawn is 6 inches tall the roots will be about 6 inches deep where the water is still at even during the hottest time of the day so it will survive.

But this neighbor with the sprinkler system has been able to get away with having 2 inch tall grass during every other normal summer. But not this year. This year even with the sprinkler system he is losing the battle against the heat. He has developed bad practices of cutting his grass so short and got away with it. But not this year. His lawn looks like hell. He may lose his lawn if he keeps up with the same practices that worked during a normal year without a drought. His lawn is right on the edge now.

My lawn which is about 6 inches tall and still looks green and lush without any watering at all this year.

There is how proper preparation of the lawn early in the season can make or break having a viable lawn when the heat comes.

Just thought I would pass that information on.

Don

[undeterred]

1. Even 6 weeks with no rain?

[NNN0LHI]

3. Yes

Because if it the lawn is high enough when the temperature drops through the night the lawn will become as wet as if it had just been watered due to the accumulation of dew through the night. The taller the grass. The more surface area for the dew to accumulate on.

When I bring the dogs out to do their business in the morning I have to wear rubber shoes because the lawn is so wet. Not from rain or watering. Just from so much accumulation of dew. It is soaked.

So the lawn is basically watering itself at this point.

Don

[madokie]

2. You can bet that i will start mowing our lawn up another notch

I've known what you're saying for a long time and a few times I've practiced it. Where I live we have snakes the cotton mouth kind and my wife won't let me keep the lawn too high as she's afraid of the snakes, well so am I actually. Snakes don't like short grass as I guess the sun burns them or something. But I will come up with an excuse why I'm mowing a little higher next year. This year is shot already and theres not much need in running the mower over dead grass and filling ones lungs with dust. But next year will be another story

[Gman]

4. I don't know where you live but

Here in South Texas last year, we had the worst drought and heat in 50 years and water rationing to boot. You could only water once a week and only for about 6 hours and only during certain times. But you could hand water anytime.

People down here always cut their lawns tall, drought or not because of the heat, so that is one thing that helps. Mine is about 2". (we generally have St. Augustine and Bermuda. The St.A demands a lot if water. Bermuda not as much.). A good mulching mower is a must. That helps keep the moisture in. And 30 minutes of hand watering a day will go a long way to keeping it green. hand watering daily is probably the most important and best thing. Also, water after 8 pm and before 10 am. Otherwise it just evaporates and doesn't soak in.

It got to the point last year where I almost just let it go with the intent of putting in drought resistant Bermuda. But it made it and this summer is much milder. Who knows next year?

Just some tips from hot and dry South Texas.

[NNN0LHI]

5. I live near Chicago but I still prepare for the worst and hope for the best

I have always cut my lawn this way. Just in case. Because you just never know.

And I also use a mulching mower for the free fertilizer it creates. No problem with needing to dethatch either.

On thing I forgot is I don't let it get tall enough where it goes to seed. When I see that starting to occur I cut it right away. At 6 inches tall. And in the fall it has to be cut shorter so it doesn't lay over through the winter. Because if it lays over it may not come back. But I don't bring it down all at once in the fall. But when I am lowering the height I do it a little bit at a time. I never take more that a third of the height off with any cut.

Good luck.

Don

[Gman]

7. What kind of grass is it?

[NNN0LHI]

8. Kentucky Bluegrass

Last edited Fri Jul 20, 2012, 07:15 PM - Edit history (1)

[Gman]

11. That's what I was thinking

it's a beautiful grass but it sure doesn't like hot and dry. When you said you cut it to 6" I was thinking Kentucky Bluegrass.

On the bright side, I'm sure it's not much different up there, but it seems that come Labor Day, things just get milder. Even in a brutal summer like we had last year, it's rare to get above 100 here after Labor Day. And Labor Day's not but about 6 weeks off. So it will get better.

If the grass survives, that is!

[NNN0LHI]

17. Here is what it looked like in April

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what it looked like yesterday during the worst draught in this area in 56 years. Ain't perfect like it was in April. But it is alive and healthy. Without watering at all this year.

[Gman]

18. Looks great, under the circumstances.

You're obviously doing something right.

[madrchsod]

6. my back yard is green because i have`t mowed it in weeks

front lawn is crap because my wife decided it needed to be cut. around here there has been plenty of humidity to keep things green.

[4th law of robotics]

9. Good advice, although HOAs make it hard to let the grass grow out

in a lot of places.

[NNN0LHI]

10. We have had an HOA here where we have lived for over 20 years

They are pretty liberal about these kinds of issues. About the only thing that really seems to piss them of is when someone refuses to pay the $250 yearly dues. Pay that and chances are they will leave you alone. They have never bugged me about anything since we moved here in 1989. Actually they have all been kind of pleasant with us.

Imagine some other HOAs are different. Like anything else I guess. Going to have some good ones and some bad ones.

Don

[Honeycombe8]

12. If your grass is 6 inches tall, then you don't mow it at all? Grass only grows 6 inches tall.

No grass that I know of grows to be 8 inches tall. So you don't mow it at all? Or once a month?

[XemaSab]

13. It depends on the variety of grass

The grass in the back where I never mow can get head-high.

[Honeycombe8]

14. That's against ordinances here. But you do know that lawn grass doesn't grow that tall.

Those are weeds or ornamental grasses.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) grows 18 to 24 inches tall

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/bluegrass.html

[Honeycombe8]

19. He said "head high." That's 5 feet tall, at least. nt

[XemaSab]

16. The fescue we have growing gets up to three feet

and the weedy Dallis grass gets a lot taller than that.

[Honeycombe8]

20. Dallisgrass is a weed, not lawn grass. But you said "head high," which is at least 5' tall. nt

[Honeycombe8]

21. I don't know where you live, but fescue is a cool season grass (no summer heat). And it grows 3"here

Maybe 4" tops. And it won't last through the Texas heat...it's a cool season grass.

Isn't fescue what is used on golf courses? It doesn't grow particularly long, and it's healthiest when kept at a certain height, like for golf courses. There is a tall variety; that's the kind that gets 4" here.

There aren't many grass choices here. For summer, it's Bermuda, and St. Augustine (though St. Augustine will get killed in a hard freeze in the winter). There are then seasonal grasses, that you can seed for winter or whatever, when the lawn turns brown. But they'll die when the heat hits, and the summer lawn can sprout.

It's against city ordinances to have anything in the lawn area taller than 24" - it has to be in a flower bed, with border or something, to be allowed to be taller. That would include a garden in the back. Doesn't include trees and shrubs, of course.