MINNEAPOLIS— If not managed properly, the summer heat can wreak havoc on our lawns and landscaping.
Trisha and Jeremy Power work hard to care for their garden in Minneapolis.
“I think it’s great,” Jeremy Power said. “Honestly, I love it when my friends tell me how great our grass looks.”
They do not use chemicals or fertilizers. They say the secret to their success is the soil.
“It’s all compost,” Trisha Power said. “Everything we cut I reuse, everything I dig out. This is all healthy, just mulch it up and throw it back on.”
The rain this spring has given the soil good moisture and moisture to allow trees to cool themselves in high heat.
Tyler Hesseltine, an arborist with the Davey Tree Expert Company, says to be careful of too much water.
“Then you can get root rot, which essentially prevents trees from absorbing water as they normally would,” he said.
However, too little water can cause symptoms of heat stress, such as red or drooping leaves.
Hesseltine says that ideally a garden will receive an inch of water per week, whether from rain, watering or a combination of the two.
“When it gets warm, the demand for water will increase,” he said.
The lawn has its own considerations.
Hesseltine says blades of grass should be about two inches long.
To measure it, his trick is to lay a cell phone on its side, and if the grass is the same height or just a little taller, then it is the correct length.
