is the main task of someone to keep your lawn beautiful but not the only one there are a few other things you can do to keep your long lush through the heat hi I'm William moss Master Gardener with the National Garden Association today we hit the historic Oatlands here in Leesburg Virginia and we're going to talk about ways to get that picture book long the first is proper watering you want to water deeply but infrequently a lot of people go out everyday with the sprinkler for 15 minutes that is not what you want to do instead you want a water 45 minutes to an hour every three to four days that way the water soaks down deeply to that six inch and below level which unless the roots grow six inches and deeper which makes the turf more drought tolerant some things that can help you with your watering are to use like a notebook that's the kind of journal when you have a heavy rain storm also a rain gauge will tell you about how much rain has fallen because what you're trying to do once again is water deeply but infrequently so if you just had a lot of rain yesterday you may not need the water today second is fertilization and when I got fertilized especially in the summer I like to use an organic top dressing they do not burn the grass so that means if you get out there and spread it down you don't have to worry about it being too hard or being so dry that the fertilizer burns out the grass not only will they help fertilize the roots of the plant they'll also help build you a nice healthy organic soil with all the beneficial communities of organisms that are in it to keep your lawn naturally drought tolerant and lush again and then finally there spot seeding we're also going to have bad patches from time to time the best way to handle that is simply to fluff up the soil using a bow rake or some type of cultivator and then you work the grass seed into that and water it in overtime so filling in the bare patches proper fertilization with a non burning top dressing and also proper watering will keep your long beautiful all throughout summer get out and grow to watch the other segments in this video series or for how-to videos on almost any other topic visit monkey seed calm