Once the season get into the season the Bermuda looks really good. Dark green growing the appearance after mowing each week is fabulous. Then comes the 4th of July, temps are in the mid to upper 90’s and if the rain fall is slack the grass can turn a crisp brown quickly. Even when there is rain fall, by mid to end of July the lawn is showing some signs of discoloration after each mowing. This continues to worsen each week. Around mid-July we will normally raise the mowing height one last time to 2 ½ inches with rotary mowers. This will gain another 2 weeks of the nice green appearance. The dog days of summer are really kicking in now as we get into August the rain fall is normally less during this month as well. The green on top of your Bermuda lawn is getting thinner and thinner each week. Actually, the Bermuda is slowly going dormant from the roots up. It has actually seen its best days from may up to the first to mid-July. As you get into September the discoloration will become more and more evident. Note. In late July the grass is really thick and gets even thicker into august if we have had rainfall. You can solve the discoloration problem by raising the height every couple of weeks this will also help mowing times. However, you will regret that decision in September if you choose to do raise the height. The lawn will really lay over and look bad with this practice. Best case is to allow the grass to discolor. Skipping a week in between will only cause the discoloration to be worse. We call this the late summer blues.

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Fescue is a cool season grass and will always look its best from mid to late October through first part of June or until the heat and humidity begins to build. The browning in the lawn is a fungus called brown patch. The best way to keep a nice healthy green fescue lawn is fungicide treatments. Those are expensive. Fescue lawns will survive the summer; however, it will appear stressed through the hottest months. It will also thin quite a bit as well. First of September cut it short down to 2 inches aerate and reseed. Keep it watered for 14 days and it will look new again.

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Let’s start from the beginning of the year. It is January cold and my Bermuda lawn is dormant and not a weed in it this can be a nice appearance. Who wants to cut grass when its really cold? Then February roles around. We use mulch kits so if there are some dry days in February and the lawn is stable enough to get the mower out its time to take the first cut off. To save from a lot of grass clipping build up take ¼ in of the lawn height off and mulch it and blow it into the turf. This will naturally decompose and rot away fairly quickly. It will ripple a bit in heavy rain situations on top of the lawn. That will be a little unsightly but nothing damaging. You can blow it in again if you’d like. Same pattern in March. Take another ¼ inch off, First week in April another ¼ inch 2nd week another ¼ inch. This should leave your height at 1 ½ to 1 ¾ inch if you follow the rest of our pattern. This practice will save clipping build up which can cause thatch problems. This will also keep all the nutrients from the fertilize in the lawn. Now we are into April the Bermuda is starting to green up, this process will allow the new seasons grass to show much quicker that all the dormant grass has bee cut off. If you don’t like the idea of mowing your lawn a few time through the winter the other option is to pull out the bagger lower the cutting height down to 1 to 1 ½ inches and scalp the dormant grass off all at one time. This is for sure cleaner as far as what is left behind however, the mower isn’t going to cut that thick dormant grass very quick and suck it up into the bagger. You can discharge all the dormant grass then go back and pick it up with the bagger. We do not use baggers because that takes away nutrients from the lawn. Example: Have you ever seen a bagger on a golf course mower? One on the green’s mowers, that is due to the grass being so short the clippings wouldn’t blow in, or if it is bent grass. When you haul your clippings away you also haul away the fertilize that you paid another company to spread for you. It is always the best practice to mow no more than every 7 days or less. When you go longer you will cause possible thatch problems and lose color as the season goes along.

Fescue Lawn

January you should be ok not to mow, it will most likely be green and pretty unless it is really cold then it may have a brown tint in places. February same thing should just be green and beautiful. During February the fescue grass could possibly need to be mowed depends on the weather. For sure by mid-March it will need a cut. Main thing is once it starts to grow let it reach 3 inches. Maintain the height at 3 inches that should be a good height unless high heat and or drought situations present themselves. You can raise as needed to 4 even 4 ½ inches if needed.  It will really look stressed through the heat of the summer, most likely get brown patch, and thin considerably. This will be its look by end of July heading into August. First of September go ahead and scalp it down to 2 inches you can bag it if you want but not 100% necessary. Aerate and reseed. Keep it watered really good for 10 to 14 days. Soon it will look brand new again. Once it appears that most all seeds have sprouted it is ok to mow. You don’t want to mow for at least 3 weeks after seeding.

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