Living in the northeast United States, we are protected from a majority of natural disasters. Among the biggest issues are blizzards, floods and droughts. Droughts aren’t typically considered natural disasters, but their long term damage and impact rival other natural disasters. The biggest impact comes from the life of our plants and crops. Droughts directly impact the local population as well, since townships will impose water usage requirements. These requirements include not washing the car or not watering your lawn. A drought has the ability to have a large impact on your life, but it doesn’t have to destroy your lawn. While you may not be allowed to water your lawn regularly, you can prepare your lawn so that it lives through this natural disaster.

Improving Drought Tolerance

Water Smart

A common misconception is that lawns should be watered frequently in order to maintain the vibrant color. While frequent watering may help on the surface, it is detrimental underneath. Frequently watered grass has roots that don’t penetrate the ground deeply. This means your grass isn’t pulling as much out of the ground as it can, which is especially detrimental during a drought. The cause to this issue is the frequent, short watering that a lot of homeowners partake in. To make your grass more drought tolerant and healthier in general, you should water deeply and not right after rain. You should water about 1″-1 1/2″ of water (you don’t want to over-saturate) throughout your lawn once a week at most. You can also wait till the grass blades begin to wilt slightly.

Mow Better

Recently we featured a blog post on how mowing your lawn can give you stronger grass. You can read that blog here. Some tried and true mowing techniques that help protect your lawn from a big stressor like droughts is never mowing more than 1/3 of your grass’s length at a time and using sharp blades. This helps prevent undue stress on your yard. If you stress your grass, the growing process slows and the root system is weakened, as the grass goes into survival mode. Stronger and deeper roots are necessary if you want your lawn to persist in tough times.

Choosing Resistant Grass

If you’re really worried about protecting your lawn from a drought, you can replace your grass with a species that is better suited for dry conditions. While this isn’t a necessary choice, especially in the northeast United States, it is another helpful solution. These grasses require less water in general and have mechanisms, such as browning out, to protect their livelihood. Some of these grass species include:

• Hybrid Bermuda Grass
• Kentucky Bluegrass
• Buffalo grass

There are a number of other drought resistant grasses, but these are some of the better ones. Having these grasses in combination with helping your roots grow deeper through good mowing and watering practices will allow your yard to persist through most droughts.

During a Drought

While you can prepare your yard as much as you want, that doesn’t mean you can do whatever when a drought occurs. When this natural disaster hits, there are a few other things you can do to protect your yard. The following are things you should focus on when a drought hits and your township outlaws watering your lawn.

• Avoid unnecessary traffic on your lawn. If a bunch of things are happening on the lawn, this is undue stress that makes the situation worse.
• Stop mowing. This is another unnecessary stressor during a drought. The grass is likely not growing anyway, so there’s no need to mow in the first place.
• Avoid other lawn practices such as fertilizing, thatching, pest treatments, etc. These can all be helpful when conditions and time of year are right. Unfortunately during a drought these activities will cause more stress. Fertilization typically helps the grass become thicker, however this growth during a drought takes away from the root growth that is necessary to last.

Hopefully you’ll never need these tips to protect your lawn from a drought, but it never hurts to know! Remember Villegas Landscaping for all of your landscape and hardscape needs!

How to Manage Lawn – Drought Tolerant Lawn Grass – Dealing with Drought Stressed Lawns – Improving Your Lawns Drought Tolerance