Caring for Your Lawn in Summer? The 10 Tips to Follow for Kansas City Residents

Summer in Kansas City, MO, is glorious. Long, sunny days are perfect for barbecues, ball games, and backyard gatherings. But the 86°F afternoons we enjoy, the bursts of humidity, and sudden rainstorms are huge stress factors for our landscapes. They can easily turn a stunning yard into a patchy-weed infested mess. Properly caring for your lawn in summer becomes the only choice left to boast a pristine yard throughout the year. But instead of searching every website on the internet, all you have to do is read this guide to understand why adapting your maintenance plan is essential for your turf, and know the 10 practical tips that help you protect your investment and enjoy a healthy lawn.

The basics of good summer lawn care are having proper irrigation schedules. The hot weather greatly stresses your grass lawn, so aim to water deeply (about 1 inch per session) between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m.

We recommend early-morning irrigation to limit evaporation losses and allow blades to dry quickly, reducing fungal risk. One of our lawn watering tips is that if you see runoff before reaching your target depth, break the session into two shorter cycles, 30 minutes apart. This encourages infiltration without wasting water.

Mowing high is part of caring for your lawn in summer. Taller blades shade soil, conserve moisture, strengthen root systems, and prevent weed seeds from emerging. Therefore, keep the blades sharp (dull ones tear grass instead of a clean cut, and this only invites disease). Moreover, we advise raising your mower blade to its highest setting (usually 3 ½ or 4 inches for cool-season fescues and 2 to 3 inches for zoysia).

Besides that, we suggest following the “one-third rule”: never remove more than the top third of the grass blade in a single cut. You also don’t have to get rid of the grass clippings. In fact, you can keep them in your landscape as mulch, boosting soil moisture and nutrients.

Summer heat stress accelerates warm-season weeds like crabgrass and goosegrass. Let a few of them pass by, and soon they’ll overrun your entire turfgrass, making the situation unmanageable for you alone. Weed control is simply essential as soon as the first threat sprouts. If you notice weeds claiming a spot on your landscape, treat them with a post-emergent herbicide designed explicitly for your grass type. Apply it when the air temperature is below 85°F to avoid phytotoxicity. You also have the option of hand-pulling broadleaf weeds (henbit, chickweed) after it rains. The soft soil allows roots to release with little effort.

Thatch is similar to mulch, actually. It’s a naturally occurring layer of roots, dead grass, and other organic materials, so in most cases, it helps retain moisture and protects your turf from temperature changes.

However, thatch thicker than ½ inch does quite the opposite of what it’s supposed to: it blocks water and nutrients. For warm-season grasses, an early summer power rake (when grass is actively growing) opens the canopy, allowing air and fertilizer to reach the soil. Follow with light irrigation to help the turf recover.

Caring for your lawn in summer also involves staying vigilant for diseases. Brown patch, dollar spot, and summer patch are the most common. They all thrive in warm, humid nights, with temperatures above 70°F and relative humidity rising past 60 %. You may notice brown or dead grass for brown patch disease, straw-colored areas for dollar spot, and uneven, yellow circles with healthy turf in the middle for summer patch. Apply fungicide if they’re already present in your outdoor space. If not, to prevent them, water at dawn, not dusk, to keep leaf surfaces dry overnight.

Summer conditions take a toll on turf. Fertilizing helps your garden regain its strength and vitality. Therefore, while cool-season grasses slow down in the heat, warm-season lawns reach peak uptake now. We recommend fertilizing in early and late summer. You can also include an organic fertilizer in the mix for an extra, and very welcome, upgrade. We suggest going for a slow-release fertilizer to feed steadily without burning roots. And don’t forget to water lightly, yet immediately after application.

Pretty much like diseases and weeds, pests are a pain to deal with on your own. Instead of raking your brain trying to eliminate them, scout for them weekly. The most common during summer are sod webworms (small moths fluttering at dusk) and chinch bugs (they congregate in sunny patches and suck sap from grass blades). At the first sight of one of those pesky pests in your yard, apply a broad-spectrum insecticide only when thresholds are met, usually 15+ chinch bugs per square foot. Encourage natural predators by avoiding unnecessary pesticide use on pollinator-friendly flowers near the lawn.

Summer activities increase foot traffic on your landscape. Friend cookouts, play time with your family or pets, and bonfires under the starlit sky, they’re all amazing. But under drought stress, your turf is already suffering. More foot traffic makes it worse.

So, summer lawn care means avoiding this. We don’t mean to stop all outdoor activities, though. Instead, create defined pathways with stepping stones or mulch, move playsets occasionally to distribute wear, and place lawn chairs and other furniture on your concrete patio, if you have one. During record-high afternoons, postpone backyard games to the cooler, dew-kissed evenings when turf is less brittle.

Bare patches are not beautiful. And even worse, they leave room for weeds to grow. If you have St. Augustinegrass, Zoysiagrass, Bermudagrass, or other warm-season turf, then early summer is the ideal time to overseed them.

By starting easily, seeds germinate while giving roots enough time to take before winter dormancy. Dethatching before overseeding can help a lot, too, so roots establish better. In an area with many birds or other animals, you can add topsoil or mulch over the seeds to protect them.

Truth be told, not all lawn care tips for summer may work for you. But that doesn’t mean your efforts are in vain. Remember, no two summers or gardens are the same. So, before giving up, try creating a simple journal.

And record everything, from rainfall, mowing heights, fertilizer dates, disease or pest sightings, to water volume. Over time, patterns appear that help you fine-tune the timing of dethatching, aeration, or fertilizer. This approach saves you effort and money in the long run.

Larin Tree & Lawn Service LLC Makes Caring for Your Lawn in Summer Easy!

To summarize, caring for your lawn in summer is not for the weak: You must stay on top of weeds, pests, and diseases, as well as watering, mowing, fertilizing, overseeding, and dethatching schedules. While we recommend keeping a journal to determine what works and what doesn’t, you should also create a calendar to avoid forgetting anything.

Or you can let the experts help. Larin Tree & Lawn Service LLC crafts a one-of-a-kind year-round lawn care schedule, following your yard’s conditions and needs, as well as your budget and lifestyle. Our two decades of experience guarantee we identify the perfect time to apply fertilizers, mow, overseed, and more, guaranteeing a lawn with nutrients and a summer free of hassle. Contact us today to start your journey to healthy grass!