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Hi, I'm Harold Enger from Spring-Green, and I'm here to talk to you about what happens
to a lawn when it goes dormant. As you can see here, this lawn has gone dormant. Lack
of rain has really caused this to occur here. Now, you can see some spottiness to it. Why
does that happen? Well, it could be for various reasons: the type of grass we see here might
be a little more resistant to drought stress. Maybe, some of these plants have produced
a deeper root system. But, for the most part this lawn is underneath drought stress, and
it looks like it is not going to ever come back.
But, you have to give it some time. If this lawn was to be watered, or we were to receive
rain, it will start to grow. In fact, in this area we have recently received some rain and
if we get down here and look at the grass, push it apart, we can actually see new blades
of grass coming up from the crown of the plant. Because it's the crown of the plant that has
to remain alive. As long as you can get about a half an inch of water down to your lawn
every 2 weeks or so, the lawn is going to stay alive. It is will not necessarily be
green, but it will remain alive, which means that it will start to come back once temperatures
drop and the rains return, or this lawn is watered. Sometimes in a situation like this
when it's very brown, or maybe the entire lawn is very brown, it's not a bad idea to
maybe cut it a notch shorter once to get some of this brown grass to give room for new grass
to come up. It's about the only time I will recommend for you to cut your grass a little
bit shorter than the highest or second highest setting.
But, this lawn will recover and it will be green once again - especially if it has received
fertilizer, even during a drought period. A lot of people think that you shouldn't fertilize
a lawn during a drought period, but once you get the rain or you water that lawn, it's
going to need food to regrow. So, if you fertilized your lawn, the food is going to be there,
the plant will take it up, it will use it to produce a new plant. So, in a situation
where you have a drought stressed lawn like you're seeing here, fertilizing actually is
not a bad idea. It will get it to come back a lot faster.
So, if you want to find out more information about dealing with a drought-stressed lawn
like this, contact your neighborhood lawn care professional at Spring-Green. Or, you
can visit my Ask the Expert blog at Spring-Green.com.