# DT19866s Lawn Journal from the East end of Toronto, Canada



## DT1986 (May 3, 2018)

Not the way I meant to start a lawn journal but my lawn has taken a beating the past few days. The heat and drought have taken a toll on my lawn. I have not been keeping up with watering if it means watering it twice a day, every day. I water manually so take some effort but then again my yard is small so I have no excuse. I refuse to water more than 2 or 3 times a week as I have read that watering deep every few days should encourage the roots to grow deeper. Well, judging by the look of my lawn I question how true that is. Sorry I am ranting..... :x



The sidewalk area of the lawn is a disaster and the concrete to the side of the road does not help.



Here's the window shot. A good mow makes any lawn look good. Even a burnt one. That neighbor to the right is a force to reckon with! :evil: The guy waters several times a day every day! I guess retirement has its benefits.



Looking forward, I have decided to pick myself up and plan for the future. Here are the simple few steps I plan on following the next week or so:

1) Mechanically aerate lawn
2) Layer on some peat moss to help retain moisture
3) Raise HOC to 4"

Please let me know your recommendations.........

This past weekend I put down down Humic Acid from natureslawn.com. I do not have the rate I as I emptied what was remaining in the bottle. :thumbup:

I may spoon-feed some Nitrogen over the coming weeks. I already out down 0.75 lb/N on June 13th and 1 lb/N weeks prior to that.

Wish my luck guys.


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## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

Mow higher and water more.

To keep the grass from getting too hot and going dormant you might need to water every day. Yes your roots won't go deep, but it's better than the lawn going dormant. In the fall you can back off the water and let the roots go deep.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Right now the focus should be on survival. Don't aerate now, that causes a lot of stress and dries the soil more. Don't feed it more nitrogen, because it will need more water. Lastly, you need to be doing around 0.5in of water every 2-3 days. I think some of the Toronto members stated a 0.2in of water/day is what they need right now.


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## DT1986 (May 3, 2018)

Keeping fingers crossed from some rain. The weather forecast is calling for some rain this week but can't really depend on that.


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## DAM Lawn (Jan 6, 2020)

Its been tough lately with the heat and no rain. I've raised the cut height to 3.25 in the front, 3.75 in the back. Been full watering every other day, and curb areas hand watering daily. If it is a scorching hot day you can go out late afternoon and spray the lawn down. This isn't really a watering, just enough to cool it down and take the stress off. As said above, wrong time to aerate, wait until mid August at the earliest. For now, stay on top of watering until some good rain comes, raise the cut height and cross your fingers.


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## DT1986 (May 3, 2018)

I agree on the aerating. Perhaps that might be a bit too much given the time of season.
I have been looking in to drought tolerant varieties of grass to see if that might be a viable option.Tough to see the lawn go to dormancy during these months.


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## doverosx (Aug 7, 2019)

We really got ripped off this spring that's for sure!


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