You've worked hard on your property to create a beautiful, fun place for your family to enjoy. We know you come here to get coaching on having the perfect lawn, but we also hope you use your lawn for living and playing.
This summer and every summer, if you've had some reckless fun on your lawn with fireworks and slip 'n slides, here are a few tips to help keep it in the best shape possible.
Fireworks & Lawn Care
Before you light fuses, think about where you've placed your fireworks.
Most lawns that are verdant with summer growth will be just fine. The risk of firework damage or grass fires is higher when we have been suffering from summer drought or in the winter when warm season lawns are brown with dormancy.
However, burn damage to your grass is something to keep in the back of your mind as you consider where to stage your display. Even if you don't stage your own colorful display, you may find stray rockets and strange marks in your grass from your neighbors!
Preventing Burn Damage to Grass
If you lay down a piece of plywood on top of your grass as a hard, flat surface for shooting your fireworks, remember to pick it back up that night or the next morning. Any item left laying on your grass in the heat of the day or for extended periods will cause discoloration and damage to the lawn.
Too late? Did you lose perspective already and really light up a show? Don't be sheepish about it! Keep reading for tips on how to fix it.
Large Plastic Items & Lawn Care
If you're delighting the kids with joyous bouncy houses, slip 'n slides or inflatable pools, don't keep those large plastic items set up all weekend. They will smother your lawn.
Preventing Damage from Inflatables Like a Slip 'n Slide
It is best to empty and move the inflatables when play time is finished or at least at the end of the day. And put it in a different spot next time.
A tough nut like TifTuf Bermuda will likely bounce back from this stress like a 5-year-old jumping her heart out, but it will take extra TLC for other lawns and Tall Fescue may be a goner.
Tents/Canopies & Lawn Care
If you put up a shade shelter, such as a tent or canopy, you have a little more flexibility in leaving it up longer. You have the extra wiggle room because there is airflow to your grass and some sunlight will reach your lawn in the morning and late afternoon, when it's able to angle in from the sides.
Preventing Damage from Tents
If you don't take it down after a few days, at least consider moving it to another temporary location to allow the current area to recover.
Warm season lawns thrive when receiving direct sunlight (even Tall Fescue needs a few hours of direct sunlight). Sunlight requirements vary by lawn type and a lawn will usually be fine with a few temporary days in the shade of your canopy.
If you find yourself in a situation where your lawn is turning yellow due to lack of direct sunshine (like in the picture below), then remove your canopy and water, water, water to help it rebound. It will likely recover! Keep scrolling for our full list of recovery tips.
Large event tents sat on this TifTuf Bermuda lawn for 10 days with full recovery once the tents were removed.
Lawns Care After Damage from Fireworks & Slip 'n Slides
Don't dismay if your lawn gets hurt in all the summer fun, here are our lawn care and repair solutions:
- Water: Water, water, water. It's possible a warm season lawn will regrow from the rhizomes that were under the large plastic item. Only water will activate them into growth again.
- Watch & Wait: Warm season lawns will grow back via the runners (called stolons), but I would water, water, water to encourage them to spread back into the bare area faster and to possibly reactivate the rhizomes.
- Aerate & Compost Topdress: If you haven't done this yet to your warm season lawn, summer is good time to do so - it will help a lawn recover from the wear and tear of hangouts and games. Read our Soil3 blog for more info on topdressing. Tall Fescue lawns are aerated and topdressed in the autumn.
- Reseed: Zenith Zoysia and TifBlair Centipede can be patched with seed during summer and Elite Tall Fescue seed can be replanted during fall. Here is our master document on growing lawns from seed: How to Grow a Lawn from Seed
- Resod: Come get a few rolls! Order online and schedule pick up of single rolls and delivery or pick up of full pallets. Here's how to patch small areas with a few rolls of sod.
General Summer Lawn Care
Click here for tips on summer lawn care including weed control and fertilizing.
Click here for tips on mowing warm season lawns.
Check our our tips on Lawn Care for Inflatables and Fireworks During Winter Holidays.
