Summer Lawn Care Tips for New Hampshire

Keeping your lawn in pristine condition all year round can be tough, especially during the heat of summer. Summer lawn maintenance will help you ensure that your lawn is getting the attention, nutrition, and hydration that it needs to stay healthy all summer long. Our lawns, trees, and plants go through a lot during the hot summer months, so a little attention goes a long way. These summer lawn care tips will help your lawn beat the heat and stay lush and healthy all year long.

Smart Summer Irrigation

The first step to ensuring your lawn stays healthy this summer is to set it up for success with smart summer irrigation. Summer lawn watering is crucial to make sure that your grass, trees, and landscaping have access to and are receiving the right amount of water at the right times. Having an irrigation system is one thing, but making sure you’re using your irrigation system properly is a game-changer.

Summer sprinkler system maintenance for established lawns include:

• Set up and become familiar with your zones, especially any “hot-zones” where your lawn gets full sun and is prone to drying out.
• Water heavy for 30-40 minutes per zone, longer for the “hot-zones” in your lawn. Allow enough time to water deeply, nourishing the root systems.
• Water early in the day to allow your lawn enough time to dry out so you can avoid fungal infections and lawn diseases.
• Water 3-4 times a week.
• Setup the timing to ensure your lawn is being watered at the optimal times. It’s best to water in the morning, allowing enough time for excess water to evaporate to avoid having standing water on your lawn. You don’t want to create a mosquito breeding ground or encourage fungal growth.
• Install a rain sensor to help you conserve water.

Summer system maintenance for newly seeded lawns include:

• Water 2-3 times per day for at least 30 minutes each time to ensure constant dampness and to allow the seeds to germinate. 
• Follow this schedule for 7-10 days.
• Switch to the standard watering techniques after the first mowing.

Here at Alliance Landscaping, we know that watering your lawn is important during the hot summer months. That’s why we offer irrigation services, including: spring start-up, fall winterization, maintenance, and custom solutions. 

Crabgrass Control

Summer weed control, specifically crabgrass control, is next on the list for summer lawn care. Each year, lawns become inundated with the summer weed that’s the bane to homeowners everywhere: crabgrass. Crabgrass is a summer annual plant that begins germinating when the soil temperature reaches a consistent temperature of 55-60 degrees. You’ll see it start to sprout in driveways and the cracks in sidewalks, but they can quickly spread to your lawn. Once it starts growing, crabgrass is a tough weed to eliminate.

Effective crabgrass control begins with prevention and a great way to prevent lawn weeds is by using a pre-emergent herbicide. Crabgrass pre-emergent is an herbicide that is applied to the lawn before the soil temperatures reach 50 degrees to prevent seeds from germinating. Once weeds begin to pop up in your lawn, it’s time to invest in broadleaf weed control and other forms of post-emergent herbicides. At Alliance Landscaping, we use a selective formula that is able to be used to treat weeds that come up throughout your lawn without harming your grass. 

A Healthy Lawn is a Weed-Free Lawn

While pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicides are effective weed control measures, there’s an even better way to keep weeds out of your lawn: keep your lawn healthy. Maintaining a healthy lawn with thick, luscious grass will eliminate much of the threat of weeds. 

Cultural best practices for summer lawn management include:

• Never cut more than ⅓ of the grass blade when mowing. 
• Alternate the direction you mow your lawn every other time.
• Keep your lawn mower blade sharp.
• Leave the clippings on the lawn to provide nitrogen to your grass.
• Adhere to the proper watering techniques discussed above.
• Invest in a lawn care program from Alliance Landscaping to ensure your grass gets proper fertilization at the right times.

Protect Your Yard From Insects

While perimeter pest control will protect your home from indoor pest infestations of carpenter ants, spiders, and other bugs, there are still a number of lawn-damaging bugs that live outdoors. Summer insect control is an essential step in your summer lawn care.

Here in New Hampshire, chinch bugs and billbugs are a real problem and can cause massive amounts of damage to your lawn. Summer pests can quickly take over a lawn if left unchecked, making summer pest control a must. The wet spring combined with hot weather during the summer will also bring out the ticks. As the threat of Lyme disease continues to rise here in New Hampshire, it’s important to make your yard as inhospitable as possible to these dangerous pests.

Some tick control tips include:

• Clean up any lawn debris, including leaves, branches, and twigs.
• Keep your lawn mowed.
• Move any play structures and toys away from the tree line.
• Keep bushes trimmed away from your home and from the ground.
• Invest in 5 application tick control services from Alliance Landscaping.

At Alliance Landscaping, we provide comprehensive tick and insect control to ensure you’re protected from these dangerous pests.

Choose the Best Grass

If you want to give your lawn a boost, then overseeding services are for you. Choosing the ideal grass type for your New Hampshire lawn can be overwhelming if you aren’t familiar with grass types. 

Do you have a shady yard or a sunny yard? What type of soil do you have? Is your soil sandy or full of clay? Certain types of grass will do better in certain situations. Here at Alliance Landscaping, we use a tri-blend of cool-season grass seeds to ensure that your lawn is lush. By combining Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, and perennial ryegrass, you will get the best resistance to pests, disease, heat, cold, and drought.

Need help with your summer lawn care? Call the professionals at Alliance Landscaping.

This list just scratches the surface of what needs to be done throughout the year. At Alliance Landscaping, we understand your time is precious. That’s why we provide a full range of lawn care programs to make your life easier. Whether you’re looking for lawn fertilization, pest control, or irrigation maintenance, Alliance Landscaping is committed to making your lawn the best it can be! 

Call today at (603) 704-4230 or leave a message on our site.