It’s time to pay close to attention to our North Texas lawns. Here are the key steps

We’ve turned the corner from spring rains, cool nights, and tolerable afternoons to the hot Texas summertime. We need to pay double attention to our lawns to help them recover from two really bad winters and one dreadful summer in between. I’ll outline your steps.

Determine first if you’re going to need to plant new grass to fill in bare areas. You can still do that, but it’s going to be a bit challenging because of the temperatures.

You’ll need to scratch up a couple of inches of soil to prepare a good planting bed whether you intend to sow seed or use sod. Rake to establish a smooth grade that feathers in perfectly with surrounding areas.

Sow bermuda seed at the rate of 2 to 4 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Combine it with equal amounts of corn meal to extend the fine seed and make it easier to sow. Water the new planting twice daily for eight or 10 minutes in hot weather, and use a fine droplet size so you don’t wash the seed down the street. Mow it at 1-1/2 inch as soon as it grows past that height. Keep it low to encourage dense spreading.

If you’re planting sod, be sure it’s fresh and plant it carefully onto the loose topsoil. Snug the pieces up against one another and water immediately to keep them from drying out. The grass will probably look worse for a few days, but it should quickly rebound, take root, and start growing.

For established lawns…

Mow regularly, preferably every five to seven days. Frequent mowing will mean that you’ll be removing less blade area each time that you cut the grass, and that will be easier on the turf. Sharpen your mower blade if you notice that the grass blades are frayed and browned after you mow.

Mow at the recommended height for each type of grass. Common bermuda should be kept at 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inch. St. Augustine is best at 2 to 3 inches. Zoysias will vary between 2 to 3 inches. Hybrid bermudas are kept much shorter and will usually require a reel mower.

Use a mulching mower to return clippings to your lawn’s surface. That will allow you to return much-needed nutrients and organic matter to the soil. However, it’s critical that you mow frequently so that you’re not removing more than one-third of the leaf area each time that you mow. Longer, older blades don’t decay properly and can lead to accumulations of impenetrable thatch on the surface of the soil. That’s especially troublesome with bermudagrass lawns and when bermdua is fed with fast-release sources of nitrogen.

Water is critical to your lawn’s survival. Those are almost fighting words to some conservationists, but they don’t need to be. We Texans waste enough water that we could easily put conservation practices in place and still have attractive, functional lawns for cooling and recreational benefits. Here are a few suggestions off the top of my head:

▪ Water only in the evenings or early mornings. There is less wind and loss to evaporation then.

▪ Apply water in large droplets instead of fine sprays, again to lessen loss to wind and evaporation.

▪ Water less often but more deeply. That will encourage deeper root growth for a greater margin of error during dry spells.

▪ Eliminate weeds. They rob valuable water.

▪ Mulch your beds to reduce soil-to-air contact, therefore to lessen drying.

Water for summertime insect and disease problems in your turfgrass. Here are some of the common ones.

▪ Gray leaf spot in St. Augustine. This hot-weather fungus causes the lawn to take on yellowed areas when viewed from afar. On close examination you can see the diamond-shaped, grayish-brown lesions on the blades. It is much worse when nitrogen is applied to the lawn during hot weather, and it will show up on St. Augustine and even zoysia lawns. Control current outbreaks with Azoxystrobin fungicide, but in the long term it’s best to avoid applications of nitrogen from mid-June until Labor Day.

▪ Chinch bugs attack St. Augustine. They’ll always come back to the same areas of the yard — the hottest, sunniest parts. The grass will take on the glossy, dark green appearance of dry St. Augustine as its blades fold shut. You figure it’s time to water, so you soak it. The next morning it doesn’t look any better. If you’ll part the grass in mid-afternoon, you’ll see the BB-sized black insects (and their red nymphs) flitting around on the surface of the soil in the areas of dying grass. Treat immediately with a labeled insecticide. For the record, chinch bugs killed large areas of St. Augustine last summer while people were busily blaming it on the heat and drought instead.

▪ Bermuda is brown after each mowing. This is common in early summer, and it usually says that you’re not mowing often enough or that you’re mowing too low. You’re removing most of the leaf blades and cutting down into the stems. It’s taking the grass several days to recover and green up again. Solutions: mow more often and/or, raise the mower up by one notch and leave it there the balance of this year. Drop it back down in late February. Repeat the process next year.

▪ Black seedheads on bermuda. That’s a harmless fungus called bermuda smut. It may stain your white sneakers, but it won’t hurt the grass. The solutions: mow your lawn to remove the seedheads and apply an all-nitrogen fertilizer to promote new leaf growth at the expense of more flowers. You’ll still want to be sure, however, that your fertilizer has 30% to 40% slow-release nitrogen included.