Another note to help you prepare your yards for the Summer. Amarillo Lawn Care for the summer season. With the cool evening temps and moderate temps during the day, the grass and topsoil are staying moist. These are prime conditions for fungus to grow in your yards. Watch for yellow areas that start small and grow over the course of the week. You should treat these areas immediately as they can spread quickly. Tracking your mowers, walking through or even the dog just tracking through, can spread it to other areas of the yard. Jeff Loyless with Lawn Boy Services in Amarillo takes care of all my spraying should the need arise.
I also like fertilizing at the end of May or the first week of June. Normally June is our wetter months and will get the fertilizer into the ground. This also gives the yards the month of June to get thick and healthy in preparation for the hot months of July and August. Walk a brisk consistent pace in order to keep the fertilizer spread even. SHUT OFF your spreader at the end of every pass. I see so many yards with burn spots at the end of the yards because they stopped to turn around, did not shut off the spreader, dumping a bunch of fertilizer, and burning the grass. If you walk past your property line and do this, your neighbor won’t appreciate it much either. If you have or suspect you have fungus DO NOT put down any fertilizer. This will just make the fungus worse. The yard needs to be sprayed and fungus killed prior to any fertilizer applications. June also is a good time to start raising the height of your mower. Taller grass will do better in the heat.
In July be on the lookout for grub worms. I normally start seeing hatching in the 2nd or 3rd week in July. Again look for yellowing spots in the yard. An easy way to check is to just grab a handful of the yellowed grass and pull. If it peels back like a piece of turf, you probably have grubs. This also needs to be treated immediately. Grubs can destroy a nice yard in a matter of a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Bermuda over time can recover at some level. Fescue most likely will not and you will have to reseed or sod. I encourage my customers to pre-treat the yard in the middle of July. Having your yard pre-treated is much cheaper than reseeding or sodding again. With the milder Fall temps, I have been seeing second hatching in late September through October. So be on the lookout then also.
July is also when I encourage my customers to increase the watering schedule. Last Summer we did not have a 100-degree day all Summer I believe so a slight increase was all that was necessary. If we return to our norms, a 20-30% increase in watering is recommended. I would probably leave the times the same and just add a day. Remember all yards are different. If your yard is struggling and stressing some, bump up the times some until you find the sweet spot. Remember also, you don’t have to adjust the entire system as a whole. A shady section will require less time and days vs a full sun area needing more time. Adjust the times on a section by section basis if needed.
