If you are a property owner or a property manager, then you know that taking care of a lawn can be a busy (and sometimes confusing) job. There is a lot to learn about taking care of a lawn carefully and effectively, and there is a lot of information available when it comes to proper lawn maintenance.
Throughout Maryland and other parts of the Eastern United States, many properties have a type of grass known as "warm season grass," such as: Zoysia grass, Bermuda grass, St. Augustine grass, or Eastern Gama grass. Warm season grasses experience the main growing season in the spring and throughout the summer and early fall months. The grass will turn a light brown color if the winter temperatures dip low enough in the cooler months of the year.
We often hear from our clients that it’s difficult to keep up with when the best time of day or year is ideal to do certain lawn care tasks or projects, so we’d like to share the best time of day/year to water your grass, mow your grass, fertilize the grass, provide an application of weed control, fungicide application, as well as when to aerate your lawn.
Watering the lawn: As far as the time of day is concerned, the ideal time to water your lawn is in the early morning hours before the sun is at its peak in order to avoid water evaporation before the grass can soak it all up. If your lawn is dormant, or semi-dormant (as it may be during the fall or wintertime), then avoid watering your grass completely. Once the growing season begins, you can once again begin watering the lawn routinely. This will typically occur in mid to late March throughout Maryland.
Mowing the lawn: Mowing the grass is a regular activity that occurs during the growing seasons of the year, typically mid-spring to late fall. Early evening is the best time of day to mow, as the cooler temperatures will allow the grass blades to recuperate overnight; however, sometimes a person just needs to mow when they have time and opportunity. Be sure to avoid mowing the grass if it is wet. Not only will wet grass clippings clog up your lawnmower, but they can also fall in clumps all over your lawn, smother the grass and cause brown spots.
Fertilizing the lawn: Warm-season grasses typically do well with 3-4 applications of fertilizer every year. Our lawn care experts recommend fertilizing in early spring, early summer, early fall, and sometimes late fall as well. The type of fertilizer used will depend on the type of grass you have, and the number of applications will depend on the local temperatures throughout the year. Fertilizer is usually applied to lawns that have a soil temperature above 60 degrees. The best time of day to fertilize is late afternoon, when the sun is starting to set and the air temperatures begin to drop.
Applying fungicide to your lawn: Quite often, fertilizer and fungicide are applied simultaneously, so the schedule can remain the same for both types of products. Fungicide is used to limit grass diseases such as brown patch from occurring on your lawn.
Aerating your lawn: The aeration process is often practiced in late spring to early summer for warm-season grasses. Aeration allows for water, nutrients, and air to reach deep into the soil and provides for the best growing season and health for your lawn.
Feel free to contact any of our lawn care experts to ask questions about specific lawn maintenance projects. Just contact us for more help at 443-846-0199 or info@rootedinnaturemd.com.
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