Relief from Drought Stress for Lawns in Tulsa & Northwest Arkansas
Posted by Kathy Wilder on Wed, Aug 17, 2011
The past several weeks have yielded some badly needed rain in Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas. Our brown, crunchy lawns have started to green up again, and the cooler weather has helped immensely. Unfortunately, the temperatures are going to soar into the hundreds again, but at least we got a little jump start on watering.
So how does this affect our lawns? They are beginning to recover!
A few quick points:
- If you gave up on watering and let your lawn go brown, this would be a good time to resume watering.
- If you skipped fertilizer because your lawn was brown, now is a great time to fertilize.
- It will take time for your lawn to recover from the heat and severe drought. Anything you can do to help it will speed up the recovery.
- Ideally, you want your lawn to fully recover and become thick and healthy before it goes into dormancy for the winter.
- If your lawn goes into winter dormancy all brown and drought-stressed, without water or nutrients, it will be more susceptible to winterkill.
Let’s hope the rain continues!
August 9, 2011 - this bermuda area had received no irrigation at all, although it had been fertilized.
August 17, 2011 - This is the same area today. Amazing what a little rain will do and amazing how resilient bermuda can be if you just give it water and fertilizer. (Note: fertilizer was applied a week or two before the August 9 picture was taken.)