Caring for the lawn during the drought
This has not been the best spring for the lawn. We are in Stage 2 drought restrictions and may soon enter Stage 3.
Stage 2 restrictions limit sprinkler irrigation to one day a week, only between 7 and 11 a.m., and 7 and 11 p.m. At Stage 3, sprinkler irrigation is allowed every other week.
St. Augustine grass requires water every three weeks to survive. You have more flexibility if you have Bermuda or zoysia grass, as they will brown if they are not watered but will not die. As soon as the rains start again, or if they can be irrigated with another source of water, they will recover and green up.
I’ve been hearing from readers of this column and listeners of my radio show, “Milberger’s Gardening South TX” on 930 AM, that many San Antonio lawns are are starting to brown in areas that are in full sun. Likely, that browning is caused by a lack of water. But if you are concerned that it might be take-all root rot or chinch bugs, here’s how to test for that.
Pick a 3-foot square in your browned lawn and generously hand-water it every day for five days. Hand-watering is allowed
at any time under drought restrictions.
If the test plot greens up with the added water, it usually indicates your sprinkler is not applying water to the lawn evenly. Other causes, however, may be that the soil under the dry area is compacted, or the
soil can be more shallow in that spot, or there might even be rocks under the surface.
If the brown area did not respond to the test watering by greening up, chinch bugs may be in that part of the lawn. They can usually be seen at the base of the brown grass in full
sun.
Chinch bugs can be controlled by applying one of several lawn insecticides. The lawn insecticides also work to control grubs if they are applied early enough in the year.
Grub damage usually shows up as moth-eaten brown areas in a well-watered part of the lawn as a separation of the grass blades that resembles a toupee. Grubs in action often appear in the same part of the lawn in consecutive years. If you had grubs in 2021, you should treat the lawn now to eliminate the damage that will appear later in the summer.