How to recover your lawn after a hot summer - Advice - Garden Health (2024)

After the hot weather and droughts of summer, lush green lawns all around the country turn into barren, dry patches. However, believe it or not and contrary to popular belief, this isn’t the grass dying. It was in fact the grass going into a state of dormancy to protect itself, therefore allowing the grass to focus its energy on keeping the roots alive.

The Three Stages of Drought

There are three stages of drought: Light, Medium and Severe

Steps to Rejuvenate your Summer Lawn

Step 1 – Rake and Water

Use a rake to remove the loose material from the grass and give it a generous water. If the ground is hard, use an aerator or garden fork to create holes into the ground. This will help to aid water absorption. The amount of water you use is dependent on how much rain fall you have had. If a hosepipe ban has been in place, check your local council website for more information.

Step 2 – Fixing Patches

Having problem with patches on your lawn? During Spring when the temperatures are getting warmer, fix any patches using Gro-Sure Smart Patch. It contains water retaining granules and is guaranteed to repair any patch in your lawn. Read our article on how to repair lawn patches to find out more.

If your entire lawn still needs to be revitalised, use Gro-Sure Smart Lawn Seed. It contains a clever aqua gel coating that can absorb 400 times its weight in water. This helps to guarantee germination, so it is perfect for over-seeding worn grass or filling in any large areas of bare patches.

Step 3 – Thickening and Feeding

To help gardeners get ahead before the start of the growing season, Gro-Sure Fast Start lawn Seed has been developed to be used much earlier in the season. Most lawn seeds germinate when the soil temperature is 10°C degrees, but Gro-Sure Fast Start begins working at 7°C meaning you can sow your lawn seed even when ground temperatures are low.

Three to four weeks after seeding, apply a balanced fertiliser to replenish soil nutrients and give at an extra boost to keep the lawn strong and healthy. Westland SafeLawn releases nutrients gradually to avoid stress and includes grass seed to fill thinning areas. It is an organic fertiliser with added lawn seed and has been made using only natural ingredients. Furthermore, it is safe to use around pets and children making it a suitable product to use by many families.

Westland Lawn Revive is a child and pet friendly natural lawn thickener. It will revive tired looking lawns in three ways; improves the soil to boost germination and seed establishment and improves water management. It also fills sparse areas and patches with high quality lawn seed as well as feeding every blade, for a thicker, green lawn in just three days. The natural formulation means that microbes must break down some of the ingredients to release the nutrients. Therefore resulting in a slower but even release and a greener lawn for longer! The regular application also gives the soil conditioning ingredients chance to build in the soil for long lasting improvement.

Tips to Recover your Summer Lawn if it Still Looks Dead

If you have done all of the above and your lawn is still looking dry and dead, simply give the grass a gentle pull and if you can easily pull it up then unfortunately your grass has died. However, if you face some resistance then it is still alive and there is still hope for recovery!

How to Sow a New Lawn

If your lawn hasn’t recovered and has died you will need to sow a new lawn. The autumn after a dry summer is the ideal time to carry out repairs to your lawn. This will give your lawn enough time to recover from the drought but will also help to make it more drought resistant the following year.

Gro-Sure Smart Lawn Seed is a perfect product for sowing your new lawn, as not only does it contain grass seed but it also helps to prevent future damage to your lawn if a dry spell was to occur again. Make sure that you remove any dead parts of the lawn before you start to sow as it is important to scatter the lawn seed over bare soil. Read our article on how to sow a new lawn to find out more.

Key Point to Remember

A key point to remember is that grass is one of the most resilient plants on earth. If a drought does occur again, simply leave the grass well alone and don’t mow your grass or use any lawn care products. If you’re lucky your lawn will usually recover rapidly with renewed rainfall after the drought. If not, simply wait until the heat wave passes and begin your lawn care routine again.

Watch our lawn expert giving his top tips.