Dog Days of Summer.....

High humidity, temps around 90 degrees and night time temps in the mid 70's make this the dog days of summer. There is little we can do for turf growth at this point in time until we get highs back toward 80 degrees and lows in the 60's. For now a good defense is the best offense and we are doing all we can to survive.

January 1 through August 1 of 2012 was the driest 7 month period of the past 11 years. We are 8.55 inches below normal. The second driest January through August was in 2002 when it was 6.3 inches below normal. While we do need rain, thunderstorms during high humidity and high night time temps cause waterlogged soils that are prone to disease and lack oxygen in the rootzone for turf to survive. So while rain is needed, a little will do at this point, not a lot.