Is Your Lawn Scorched By The Summer Sun and Heat?

Every year in August in the Kansas City area, it’s not hard to find lawns that have a scorched, brown, yellow look due to the sun constantly beating down on them for weeks on end. But what you may not know is that it’s not only the sun that can give your lawn that scorched, burnt look. In fact, there can be a variety of reasons why your lawn’s grass loses its green and turns that ugly brown or yellow, and the lawn care experts at SK Lawn and Landscape have pretty much seen them all.

Lawn Care and Landscape Maintenance in Kansas City, Raytown, and Lees Summit, MO

While the sun typically does burn hot especially in July and August in the Kansas City area, drought often coincides with late summer. Sure there are a few late afternoon bursts of thunderstorms that provide an inch or two of rain every now and then but if your lawn isn’t getting regularly watered, it’s going to end up looking less than stellar. Regular and thorough watering before the sun can heat up and evaporate the water is an easy way to keep your lawn’s grass looking its best even on the hottest of summer days. The key to watering is to water deeply which means making sure the grass’ roots get plenty of water as that’s is how moisture is mainly absorbed.

Over-use of fertilizer is another surefire way to leave your lawn’s grass looking brown, burnt, and yellow. We see plenty of homeowners trying their hand at DIY lawn fertilizing and in many cases, it doesn’t work out well for them. An easy way to check if excess fertilizer is the culprit for making giving your grass the scorched look is to check the roots. If they are healthy looking and moist then it’s more of a burning problem but if they dry and shriveled then there’s a good chance the fertilizer got the best of it and will likely need to be replaced.

Lastly, we often get calls and questions from homeowners about specific areas of their lawn that have lost their green and the first question we ask is “do you have pets?” Oddly, dog urine has a surprisingly high level of nitrogen which, like fertilizer will be absorbed by your grass’ roots causing the same brown/yellow coloring and in some cases kill grass, The best advice we can give is to avoid allowing pets to urinate in the same spot of your lawn but we all know they are creatures of habit. At SK Lawn and Landscape, we’ve seen a lot of interesting problems with our customers’ lawns since 2010 and we’ve learned that sometimes the solutions are baffling until we simply ask the right questions. If you have questions about lawn care, landscaping, or hardscaping call us at (816) 372-4965 or CLICK HERE FOR OUR ONLINE CONTACT FORM.