FAQ: What is summer turf management?
Answer: Professional landscaping and lawn care operators (LCOs) use summer turf management to keep their customers’ properties healthy during the dog days of summer.
In this blog post, you’ll learn more about summer turf management and how you can apply it to your customers’ properties:
- Understanding summer turf management
- Encourage your landscaping clients to conserve water
- Summer turf management: educate your customers on professional fertilizer benefits
- Best summer turf management practices: drought and heat stress.
Understanding Summer Turf Management
Who cares about summer turf management? You probably do, but you may not know how to communicate this urgency to your customers.
Summer turf management means you’re employing sustainable lawn care practices to keep your customers’ lawns healthy and alive during July and August, the hottest two months of summer.
Summer turf management means more than your customers watering their lawns. Indeed, here are six parts of summer turf management, according to LawnBuddy.com:
- Coach your clients on the best watering techniques.
Your clients may think that sprinkling the hose over their lawns daily or investing in a cheap sprinkler that attaches to a garden hose will provide adequate water to their yards.
However, you should encourage your clients to infrequently water their lawns 1” to 2” weekly. Also, your customers should invest in soaker hoses or an automatic sprinkler system that can be set to turn on and off for infrequent watering sessions.
- Ensure that you’re mowing your customers’ lawns correctly.
If you’re a lawn care pro, you already know that sharp mower blades and only taking a third off the top are standard protocols for summer turf management.
If your customers mow their yards, remind them to allow their turfgrass to grow taller by raising their mower blades.
- Check for lawn pests when working on your customers’ lawns.
Damaging pests do their dirty work during the hot summer when there’s drought- and heat-stressed turfgrass.
As standard practice, you and your lawn techs should inspect your customers’ lawns at every site visit. Train your technicians to recognize insects that could damage lawns in your region.
- Use proper fertilization methods.
If you’re starting as a lawn care operator (LCO), get trained in the various services you’ll offer your customers, including fertilization. Also, know what nutrients your customers’ lawns need to survive the hot summer sun.
For example, know when to use fast-release and slow-release lawn fertilizers for summer turf management and when to put down fertilizer applications.
Invest in professional equipment to apply fertilizers, such as a landscape spreader or a drop-in sprayer.
- If your clients’ have cool season turfgrass on their lawns, encourage them to invest in aeration and over-seeding services in the fall.
If your lawn service provides aeration and overseeding services in the fall for cool season grasses, remind your customers of this essential summer turf management service.
Regions of the country where folks have cool season lawns or temperate regions that use tall fescue in the shade need core aeration to relieve soil compaction after a hot summer.
Also, overseed right after aeration services to replace lawns that became thin due to excessive heat.
If you have customers with warm season turf, market your springtime aeration and overseeding services in late winter to prepare lawns for summertime.
Always tell your customers why aeration and overseeding are important parts of summer turf management. You can remind them on invoices, your company newsletter, social media, and your blog.
- Use sustainable lawn care methods when you can.
Young homeowners are concerned about the environmental impact of what they put on their lawns. Also, these homeowners don’t want to expose their children and pets to harmful chemicals.
Provide sustainable lawn care methods for your summer turf management to meet your customers’ turfgrass needs.
Encourage Your Landscaping Clients to Conserve Water
July is Smart Irrigation Month, a great time to remind your clients to conserve their outdoor watering.
Summer turf management includes water conservation and reminding your landscaping customers about infrequent watering. Many homeowners will over- or underwater their lawns and landscapes. Your watering know-how will benefit clients regarding how to water their lawns during the summer.
Here are other ideas that LawnandLandscape.com shares:
- Advise your clients to reduce their lawns
- Test your customers’ soil once every two years
- Customize your lawn care programs based on your clients’ property needs
- Recommend yard drainage and rain gardens for runoff areas
- Encourage lawn care customers to use rain barrels and other water conservation tools to save water.
Read more: Pollinator-Friendly Lawn Care Practices with Spyker
Summer Turf Management: The Truth about Summer Lawn Fertilization
An article in LandscapeManagement.net says to stop fertilizing lawns and applying weed control when temperatures reach the 90s—mainly if you’re servicing cool season lawns.
In the article, one lawn care owner said they leave notes for their customers to remind them to hold off on watering every day or at night.
You can remind your customers that turning on their soaker hoses or automatic sprinkler system timer between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. is the best time for watering their lawns.
As one of the LCOs in the article says, “It’s all about educating your customer in the end.”
To stay ahead of the competition, you should upload a monthly blog and newsletter discussing summer turf management. Your blogs should educate, while the newsletter can provide additional care tips specifically for your region.
Finally, advise customers to avoid fertilizing their lawns during a heat wave. Educate your customers on the benefits of a customized fertilization program for summer turf management.
Best Summer Turf Management Practices: Drought and Heat Stress
When temperatures stay in the 90s for days, and there’s little rain in the forecast, lawns will experience heat stress, especially if they’re cool season grasses.
Warm season grasses can handle the hot, dry weather better but will start to wilt after several weeks without water.
Learn more: Top 3 Landscape Business Marketing Tips for Your Landscaping Company
The LawnManagement.com article suggests that you be more proactive before the dog days of summer. Consider using the following on your customers’ lawns, preparing for summer turf management:
- Use surfactants to improve water retention in the soil and help turfgrass get oxygen and water
- Moisture-management products mixed with topdressing for heat- and drought-stress
- Ensure that lawns get enough potassium through your fertilizer program
- Moisturize the soil with granular soil moisturizer, such as Hydretain® that transforms soil moisture vapor into water droplets
- When drought and heat stress occur, avoid using herbicides and fertilizers.
Spyker Spreaders: Your Partners for Summer Turf Management Jobs
Do you want to improve your summer turf management services for your customers? Then you need Spyker Spreaders.
Ergo-Pro and Pro-Series spreaders help you put down topdressing and other summer turf management products. Our drop-in sprayers are perfect for applying surfactants and moisture-management products.
You can find our Spyker lawn sprayers and other landscaping products at your local dealer, online, or at the Spyker store.
Spyker Customer Service: For warranty, service parts, or help at any time, get in touch with our team by filling out our contact form. Replacement parts can also be ordered online at Spyker’s website.
Sources:
LandscapeManagement.net, LCOs Share Their Best Tips to Prevent and Manage Heat-Stressed Turf.
LawnandLandscape.com, 10 Design Tips for Water Conservation.
LawnBuddy.com, Summer Lawn Care Strategies for Professional Landscapers: Proven Techniques for Client Satisfaction.
YardMastery.com, Hydretain® Granular – Moisture Manager Reduce Watering by Up to 50%.
