Too expensive to water? Let your lawn go dormant for the summer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - We all long for a beautiful lush lawn - but when the heat is on like this, it might be too expensive or too much work to keep it going. You can let your lawn go dormant for the summer. Your lawn does not die when it goes dormant, it  just takes a nap until you start watering again or we get a good period of rain this fall.

If you did seed or sod your lawn last fall or spring, do not stop watering your lawn. It's not strong enough to survive a period of no watering. You can only let lawns go dormant that are well established. Also, if you're planning on renovating your lawn with new seed this fall, keep watering till the end of July.

For those of you who can live with the brown dormant lawn, stop watering now. You don't just get to give up though: you will want to continue to spray for weeds or they can take over the dormant lawn. It's also a really good idea to fertilize once in July with a long lasting fertilizer to allow for a strong wake-up when the weather gets cooler this Fall.

The other benefit of letting your lawn go dormant for the summer is that you won't have to mow for the rest of the hot months as the lawn goes to sleep. You will want to mow one more time before you stop watering,  just to level things off. It is no sin to let your backyard go dormant but keep your front yard looking nice for curb appeal.

See you next week!