Elder Care Tips: Keeping Your Parents’ Lawn Healthy All Summer

Elder Care in North Raleigh, NC

​How your home looks says a lot about you, and if your aging parents are like many people, they take a considerable amount of pride in the appearance of their lawn. Keeping a lawn looking lush, healthy, and beautiful can be a fun, challenging, and exciting element of your elder care plan, but when you are facing the heat and humidity of a long summer, you may feel like you are fighting a hopeless battle. Fortunately, there are ways that you can keep your aging loved ones’ lawn healthy and beautiful so they can feel good about the appearance of the home, and you can all enjoy outdoor entertaining throughout the season.

Try these tips for summertime lawn care you can incorporate into your regular elder care plan:

• Leave the grass tall. Your elderly parents’ lawn is not a putting green and you should not try to make it look that way. Mowing the grass too short actually puts the health and well-being of the entire lawn at risk by increasing the rate of moisture evaporation from the soil. Taller blades of grass also produce more energy which, in turn, produces more nutrients for the soil. Set the mower blade at the highest setting to prevent cutting the grass too short.
• Use the clippings. Grass clippings are rich in nutrients and should not be wasted. If possible, leave the clippings on the ground after mowing your lawn so that they can offer more nutrients into the soil. If you absolutely have to rake them up, add them to your compost heap or spread them across the flower bed.
• Water properly. How often to water lawns during the summer months is often a bone of contention for many people. Excessive watering is not only not environmentally-friendly, but it can also cause drowning of your grass, rotting of roots, and unattractive soggy puddles. Not watering enough, however, can cause grass to dry up, get brown, and die. Much of the time rain will produce enough hydration to keep the lawn healthy. Water with moderation and use earth-friendly recycling methods such as putting out rain barrels, collecting water by putting buckets on the bottom of the tub while you shower and under the faucet when the shower is off to catch any drips, and reserving cooking water.
• Weed. Weeds growing in the lawn are unsightly and take up the important nutrients that the grass needs to grow strong and healthy. Remove weeds as soon as you see them, and make an effort to remove them by their roots rather than just cutting off the tops to slow the rate of them growing back. Avoid the temptation to use chemicals to remove weeds as these can be damaging to other plants and cause hazardous materials to wash into water supplies when it rains.

Major lawn projects can be a serious undertaking. Get in touch with the elder care agency in your area to find out about a referred caregiver to care for your parents while you are working so that they are at a safe distance and not out in the potentially hazardous heat for long periods of time.

The articles posted on this blog are provided for general information and discussion purposes only.  These articles are not intended to suggest anything with respect to the operations or services of this office.