ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Up until a few days ago, the bi-state area was facing another drought. Extreme weather specialist Chris Higgins looks at how this rollercoaster weather is affecting our lawns.
Craig Calhoun, a turf specialist with Ryan Lawn and Tree of St. Louis, says the turf he’s seen these past few weeks has definitely shown signs of stress.
“It was a pretty stressful summer for the grass,” he said. “We went about six weeks without any rain and started to see a lot of drought stress showing up throughout town on yards.”
From Aug. 1 through Sept. 21, St. Louis received only an inch and a half of rain, more than two inches below normal; enough to push us into severe drought. But four to seven inches of rainfall soaked the region over the past seven days and that has changed everything.
“The grass is still growing. Irrigated lawns have been,” Calhoun said. “But now that we’ve seen these recent rains we are starting to see them grow quite a bit over the last week.”
And with more rapid growth, Calhoun says it’s time to get those lawnmowers out more frequently.
“So, keep mowing regularly once a week,” he said. “What we’ll want to start doing once temperatures start cooling down is knock your mower level down about one to two levels. We want to be about 2 to 2 ¾ of an inch.”
Calhoun says a good lawn rehab should also include core aeration to get oxygen down to the roots and, of course, fall and winter fertilizer.
