How to care for your lawn this heatwave

The lack of rain during the heatwave this summer has caused many homeowners problems with their grass lawns.

Deb Callaghan, owner of Unique Garden Centre and Landscaping explained there are a few habits to grab hold of to help support your lawn.

“When you’re mowing the grass it causes stress every time that you’re cutting it,” Callaghan said. “You want to try and leave it longer, so cut it less.”

One tip, is to remember that cutting your lawn is similar to pruning a tree.

“It’s kind of the one-third rule,” Callaghan said. “When you’re pruning a shrub or a tree, you never take more down than one-third of a shrub, and it’s the same with grass when they’re cutting the grass. If they take more than like that one-third, that’s when you’re going to cut it and burn it and there’s a greater chance of it dying with that threat.

“If it’s going dormant on its own, it will come back.”

Callaghan recommends sharpening the blades of your lawnmower every time you cut the grass. This allows for the grass to heal quicker.

“Another thing is the weeds will like heat,” Callaghan said. “But we don’t want to be using chemicals at this time. If you do see some weeds, you should hand pull them; it’s not the time to use chemicals during the heatwave.”

According to Crop Science, in “too much heat … weeds essentially shut down, which can hinder herbicide uptake.”

Callaghan confirmed that the smoke the province is currently seeing, is not impacting the grass in yards, and not to stress over the brown patches in your lawn.

“(When your grass) turns brown, what’s actually happening is your lawns trying to go dormant to save energy,” Callaghan said. “So it’ll turn brown and stuff, but as soon as it gets water again it will green up when the weather cools off.

“Then we can add some fertilizer, especially to those brown spots. But for now, it’s literally trying to save energy and it’s trying to go dormant like the fall in winter.”

When watering, Callaghan says to get directly to the root.

“It’s watering deeply,” Callaghan said. “That’s the main thing. If you’ve got a sprinkler that is flying water all around, you’re losing too much with evaporation. So even having like the drip lines or using something that is going directly into the soil is way better.”

Turfs up: an alternative to grass

For some homeowners, turf is becoming a popular option.

Jordan Wu, turf owner and partner of Queen City Paving Stone explained that turf is a lifestyle.

“I don’t have a lot of time to maintain a yard and plants, so it was the low maintenance portion for me, first and foremost,” Wu said.

“It’s a nice luxury to have. Obviously, I don’t have to water, it doesn’t get burnt up. I mean, it does run hot, though, right? If you have direct sunlight on artificial turf, it does get extremely hot, not to the point that you’ll burn your skin per se, but it’s not going to be as cool as real grass.”

Wu explained from his experience, the heat does not damage turf.

“If it was a cheaper brand of turf, it could get to a temperature where it could damage it,” Wu said. “But in my experience, nothing that we’ve laid has been damaged from the sun.”

As part of the luxury of owning a turf lawn, owners do not need to pay expensive water bills to maintain their lawns.

“You kind of bear the cost of that upfront with installing turf,” Wu said. “It is significantly more expensive to install artificial turf, but it carries on that long term where you don’t have to pay for a water bill that includes watering the grass.”

The two main factors people turn to turf: pets and time.

“Naturally if you have a dog, male or female, you run the risk of burning up the grass or using the grass to urinate,” Wu said. “Two would be the maintenance. Again, where my lifestyle comes into play is if you’re very busy, and you don’t have a good schedule, you have a tough time handling the maintenance and that’s where it plays off big time.”

“There’s a part of me that’s sad to tear out real grass or a real garden and replace it with artificial turf. But again, I’m not one to judge a customer based off their lifestyle, right?

“I will say that there’s a time and a place for artificial turf. I do firmly believe that we should have a nice balance of real grass, real plants, real trees and whatnot.”