Why Your Lawn Is Struggling This August (And What You Can Actually Do About It)

If your yard is looking rough right now, you're not alone. We tend to get more calls around this time of year about brown patches and dying grass than any other time of year, and honestly, most of it isn't your fault.

Here's the thing about a North Texas summer: The heat alone would be tough on your lawn. Add in the watering restrictions the city puts in place every year from May through September, and you're working with a lot less room to fix problems than you think.

Grass Looking Dry and Tired? We Can Diagnose

What you're actually up against

Lewisville, like most cities in our area, limits when you can water. If your address is even numbered, you can run sprinklers on Tuesday and Saturday. Odd numbered addresses get Wednesday and Sunday. On top of that, sprinklers can't run at all between 10am and 6pm, no matter what day it is. Hand watering and soaker hoses are the exception, those aren't restricted.

That's not a lot of windows to work with when it's 105 degrees outside and your grass needs water every single day just to survive.

So what can you actually do?

The good news is that most of the lawns I see struggling this time of year aren't struggling because of the restrictions themselves. They're struggling because the irrigation system isn't using those limited windows well.

A few things I check on nearly every summer call:

Are your zones actually covering the whole yard. 

Systems settle and shift over time. Heads get knocked out of alignment by mowers, edging, even foot traffic. A zone that used to cover your whole front yard might now be missing a corner, and that corner is the one going brown first.

Is your system watering deep enough in the time it has. 

With only two watering days a week, a quick five minute cycle isn't going to cut it. Your system needs to be set up to get water down to the root zone in the windows you're allowed, not just wet the surface.

Are you watering at the right time within your window. 

Early morning, right after your window opens if it's before 10am, is almost always your best bet. Water has time to soak in before the heat evaporates it, and your grass isn't sitting wet overnight, which invites its own problems.

Do you have a leak or a broken head you don't know about. 

This is a big one. A cracked pipe or a stuck valve can waste a huge amount of water pressure that should be going to your grass, especially when the system is already working overtime in this heat.

When to call someone

If you've checked all this and your lawn is still struggling, or if you're just not sure what's going on with your system, that's usually the point to get a second set of eyes on it. A lot of what looks like heat damage is actually a system that needs a tune up, and in restriction season, you don't have room for your irrigation to be working at half capacity.

We handle sprinkler and irrigation repair and tune ups for homes across Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lake Dallas, Corinth and Argyle, and August is exactly the time we're built for. If your yard needs a look before the rest of the summer takes it out, reach out and we'll get you scheduled.

Get a Quote for Lawn and/or Sprinkler Maintenance

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Rob Dilts

Owner

RD Services