With the extreme weather we've been experiencing this past month, it's no surprise our lawns are finally admitting defeat and crisping up. But if your grass is burnt, brown and crunchy, don't start watering it just yet.
Although the warm weather is usually very welcome during summer, sometimes too much of a good thing can really take its toll on your lawn. And even when you've been watering your lawn at the right time of day, record-high temperatures along with hosepipe bans make dying grass an inevitability.
But before you run for your hosepipe or drain your harvested rainwater, gardening icon Monty Don says to stop and hold off on watering.
A post shared by Monty Don (@themontydon)
A photo posted by on
Sharing his garden on Instagram @themontydon, Monty shows us his patch of grass named 'the cricket pitch'. And whilst usually Monty's garden is undeniably thriving, like the rest of us, it's recently fallen victim to the heatwave temperatures.
Which goes to prove, even when you avoid all the lawncare mistakes in the book, sometimes the weather is one step ahead, and there's nothing to be done about it.
And that is exactly what Monty recommends doing: nothing. He says, "If, like the cricket pitch, your grass is burnt entirely brown with not a blade of green grass, don't worry. And don't waste water on it! I assure you it will recover full greenness very quickly once we get some rain."
You might find this a little hard to swallow, letting your grass burn up and dry out, but it's truly the best thing for it. Even when it looks like the heatwave has killed your lawn, there's still hope for it.
Don't panic and start watering your lawn more often than you should; that will only waste your water reserves and start a watering routine you won't be able to keep up during a hosepipe ban.
Instead, trust that the grass is in fact protected by its own layer of withered blades on top. This crispy layer acts as a sort of protected insulation for the roots below, which will come back to life at the first sign of rain.
As you can see from Monty's most recent update of The Cricket Pitch, aptly named after him and his son, who played the sport on it years ago, the lawn is still burnt but only until that much-needed rainy reprieve arrives.
A post shared by Monty Don (@themontydon)
A photo posted by on
Want to build up your water reserves for future heatwaves? Experts recommend rainscaping your garden so it's built to harvest rainwater without needing much effort from you. That way, you're prepared for hosepipe bans and further scorching temperatures.
