Sprucing Up Your Lawn After Summer

For homeowners looking to spruce up their lawn after long summer months of sweltering heat,  offers the following tips:

Lawn Care

Summer heat can take a toll on lawns – here are a few tips to keep them green:

Tip: Mow the Lawn in the Evening

• Mowing at this time of day puts less stress on the grass.
• In the evening, grass is dry and temperatures are cooler.

Tip: Mow Higher

• Raise lawnmower blades by at least ½ inch.
• Letting grass grow taller during the summer months will cause roots to grow deeper into the soil.
• This will allow for less watering and promote greener grass.

Tip: Leave Lawn Clippings

• Leave grass clippings on the lawn – they will fertilize the turf.

Annual Flowers

Spring/summer annuals have taken a lot of summer heat and heavy storms. Now is the time to give them a little care.

Tip: Dead Head

• Remove faded blooms on annuals such as geraniums, marigolds, petunias and zinnias.
• Lack of deadheading will cause plants to stop blooming and produce seed, which signals the end of a plant’s life cycle.
• Dead head by pinching off spent flowers with fingers or pruners.

Tip: Pinch Back Leggy Annuals

• By this point, some annuals may be become spindly or leggy.
• Now is a good time to pinch or trim back by as much as half their current height.
• Once trimmed, they will soon begin to leaf out, look thicker and start to bloom again.

Perennials and Trees

Perennials and trees work hard year round to keep your yard lush, so take care of these plants to ensure continued beauty.

Tip: Dead Head Crape Myrtles

• The abundance of flowering crape myrtles throughout Atlanta is declining.
• Now is the time to deadhead spent blooms with a pruner.
• A few minutes spent pruning crape myrtles will pay off with a second crop of blooms.

Tip: Control Bagworms

• Look for hungry bagworms, a type of caterpillar, on trees and shrubs.
• Bagworms resemble small brown worms with tiny black spots on their body.
• Control bagworms by applying Bayer Tree and Shrub Insect Control.

Watering

Heat can dry out the ground quickly, so be sure to give gardens the right amount of water.

Tip: Water Wisely

• Plants with berries or flower buds for next year’s blooms will benefit from extra water.
• Most established plants need approximately one inch of water per week to perform at their best.
• Save water by adjusting as needed given recent rain fall.

Tip: Mulch

• Mulching helps regulate soil temperature, conserve moisture in the soil and prevent weed development.
• Pike Nurseries has a wide range of mulches from colored nuggets to pine straw bales.

For more information, please visit Pike Nurseries online at www.pikenursery.com.