Help your Nashville lawn handle summer

Raise the mower, keep the blade sharp, and avoid summer nitrogen. Heat-stressed fescue is vulnerable to traffic, disease, drought, and chemical injury.

Water early enough for foliage to dry, use measured deep applications rather than automatic daily sprinkling, and split cycles when Nashville clay begins to shed water as runoff.

Warm-season turf grows and recovers rapidly in early summer. Late May through early July is the appropriate core-aeration window, and that is also the time to address excess thatch when the lawn truly needs it.

Feed according to grass type and actual need. Bermuda and zoysia do not share the same annual nitrogen allowance, even though both are warm-season lawns.

Warm, humid nights favor brown patch in fescue. Mid-to-late summer also brings grub checks, nutsedge growth, and fall armyworm risk. Correct identification matters before treatment.

August is also planning time: send a soil test, reserve fall aeration and seeding for fescue, and avoid a weed preventer anywhere you intend to establish seed.