The rain this summer in Roswell, GA has been record setting. As of the end of July, we had received 45.8 inches of rain – that is more rain than we received in all of 2012, and the same goes for 2011 too. Despite the onslaught of water, we are getting calls from many people who are watching their landscapes wither before their eyes. C&M Residential has some answers for those of you that are looking at a brown lawn and other plants that look like they aren’t happy.
Take a good, hard look at those statistics we mentioned – we have gotten more rain only through July of this year, than we had in all of 2012 and 2011. What does that mean for your landscape? That means that your established landscape is used to getting less than 40 inches of rain for the year and now that our climate has practically turned into a “rain forest”, your established plants do not know how to handle the additional moisture, so they are drowning.
The additional moisture will more obviously affect your turf than it will your trees and shrubs. The trees, shrubs, and other plants in your landscape have been affected by this weather, but they are probably showing it in reduced growth or production which you may or may not have noticed. Also, while these plants are affected by the extra water, it is going to affect your turf in a more direct way. Because your grass is closer to the ground, it is literally being suffocated by the almost constant standing water. This is where you are seeing your grass turn brown.
When C&M Residential receives calls from customers complaining of a dying landscape, our answer is to wait. Feel reassured that you are not the only one experiencing these problems, and know that they will not last. Once the weather dries up, your landscape will bounce back to the vigor that it once was. A year of record setting rainfall such as this one is not a time to react to what nature is giving us. This amount of rain will probably not present itself for another many years, so it is essential to gear your landscape to what is normal in our region. If your landscape looked great last year, just give it time, and it should comeback to health when the storm clouds finally break.
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