Your lawn doesn't have to suffer in drought conditions. With a little bit of preparation, and with the help of the right products, you can have a lush green lawn right the way through summer. Here's how:
Improve nutrition levels
When there is not enough moisture in turf soil, nutrients can struggle to 'move' through the grass. So use a tailored and targeted lawn fertiliser that will aid nutrient uptake in dry weather. Lawns that receives the correct nutrition use water more efficiently and won’t be so thirsty in very hot weather as those that are not correctly nourished.
Nutrigrow Phased Release 18- 3.5- 8 + 1Mg is an organic based, high quality NPK fertiliser with magnesium designed to support maximum nutrient uptake.
- Slow/phased release to avoid sudden, rapid growth.
- Reduces risk of scorch to the grass.
- Mini-granular compound fertiliser with excellent spreading pattern.
- Feeds grass over a 12-16 week period
The other part of nutrition that can be used for preparation prior to a drought is using Emerald Pro Seaweed. Seaweed in its natural environment has the ability to survive for long periods of time laid on the beach drying out before been re-wet when the tide comes back in. This ability is due to the fact that seaweed contains cytokinins and when seaweed is applied to a lawn these are transferred meaning some of the ability to survive very dry conditions is transferred to the grass so it will survive longer into drought conditions and recover faster.
Use a wetting agent
Use a wetting agent on your lawn to help water penetrate and move freely through the soil. Wetting agents can also help reduce the volume of water needed to water a lawn by up to 50%.
Abzorb wetting agents help the soil’s ability to absorb and hold on to water. So rather than water sitting in one area or running off / evaporating before it can penetrate the lawn, with a wetting agent applied, the water will penetrate the soil – greatly benefitting the grass.
They are a surfactant – a chemical compound that decreases the surface tension of a liquid, thereby increasing its spreading properties. This helps the water move freely through the soil (when applied to the whole area) greatly improving your chances of a consistent lush green lawn.
The second aspect of Abzorb is its ability to hold moisture in the soil for longer periods of time. This means that when there is a bit of rainfall or the lawn is watered, the effect of this will last for much longer than if a wetting agent had not been applied.
Eliminate weeds
Remove weeds in lawns to prevent competition for moisture. Many weeds grow very successfully in periods of drought - exploiting weaknesses in grass to take over our lawns.
Deep-rooted perennial weeds with a tap root have the ability to draw moisture from far lower down in the root zone and will therefore remain greener and lusher when your lawn starts to brown off.
Choose a high quality selective weedkiller for lawns - like Dicophar. Do take advice from our technical team if you are unsure which product is best for you.
Use drought-tolerant grass seed
If you are creating a new lawn or over-seeding a lawn in sun-exposed areas, make sure you choose a mix that has been specially blended for drought-tolerance.
Our Premier Drought-tolerant Grass Seed is formulated to be more tolerant to dry conditions than standard grass seed. It contains varieties of water-efficient seed:
- 55% MAXIMA 1 Strong Creeping Red Fescue
- 25% HIGHNOTE Chewings Fescue
- 15% ABERFLEECE Sheep's Fescue
- 5% SAMANTA Slender Creeping Red Fescue
These varieties are all fescues which have a finer leaf meaning that water loss by transpiration is far lower than in ryegrass species. Some of these such as Sheep’s Fescue have a far deeper root structure than other grasses and therefore can find water further down in the soil profile.
Follow these steps and you can enjoy a lush green lawn - even in hot dry periods.
