When your lawn turns brown in Idaho Falls, your first instinct is usually to panic. But in our climate, brown grass isn't always dead—it's often just dormant.
Whether it’s hunkering down for a long winter or protecting itself from a July heatwave, dormancy is a survival mechanism. The trick is knowing how to wake it up without shocking the system.
Reviving dormant grass requires more than just a sudden flood of water or a heavy dose of fertilizer. In fact, aggressive remedies can often do more harm than good to a stressed lawn.
To get your turf back to its lush, green state, you need to follow a gradual process that respects the grass's natural recovery cycle.
Here is how to tell the difference between dead and dormant grass in Idaho Falls, along with 5 professional tips to revive your lawn safely.
First, Dormant Grass in Idaho: When Does It Happen?
Here in Idaho, grass goes dormant in the winter.
Tucked in under the snow, it takes a break from the hard work of growing and being green.
It’s cold and snowy out there — a perfect time to take a long nap.
Will dormant grass come back? Yes! Once temperatures rise in spring and it gets water, your dormant grass will start to grow and green up again.
Your grass can go dormant in the dry heat of summer, too, if it doesn’t get consistent water. It stops growing so it can hold on to the moisture and nutrients it has left and tough out the harsh conditions.
Dead or Dormant: How to Tell?
A dormant lawn is different than a dead lawn. When your lawn is dormant, it’s not actively growing. It looks dead, but deep down, the crown of the grass is still alive.
How to tell the difference?
Grab hold of a couple of clumps of grass and tug. Does it pull right up, with no root system holding it in? It’s probably dead. But dormant grass in Idaho will still have a solid root system and resist your tug.
How to revive dormant grass?
1. Go Easy
Go easy on your lawn as it comes out of dormancy in the spring. It needs to stretch and wake up a bit.
Don’t mow too early. If you jump in and mow your lawn too soon, you can actually damage it and make it susceptible to disease. The same goes for ranking. Wait until it dries out a bit.
2. Water Gradually to Revive Dormant Grass
Your dormant grass needs water to wake up, but don’t start a flood out there.
Begin watering for about 45 minutes in the morning three times a week, and your dormant grass should start to green up again.
Resist the urge to water every day. Water deeper, longer, and not as often. That encourages deeper, stronger roots, which means greener, healthier grass.
3. Don’t Walk All Over It
When a lawn is brown, people seem to think it’s OK to walk all over it. It looks dead, right? So what’s the harm?
But too much foot traffic on your lawn when it’s dormant can actually kill it. Use the sidewalks and driveway, and give your lawn a break.
4. Don’t Fertilize Too Soon
It’s tempting to revive dormant grass with a big dose of fertilizer. You’re hungry after a long nap — your lawn must be starving, right?
It is, but make sure it’s awake and ready to absorb those nutrients. Wait for some signs of life before you fertilize.
Aim for mid-to-late April, once the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees.
Then, keep it up. Fertilize again mid-May, around the end of June, and in early to mid-August.
Don’t forget fall fertilizer. This final fall fertilizer treatment includes an important slow-release granular fertilizer that feeds your hungry lawn through the winter and helps it pop back up, ready to impress, in the spring.
5. Reviving Dormant Grass: Start to Mow
Once your lawn starts to grow again, go ahead and mow.
Make sure you have sharp mower blades. A dull mower blade “rips” the top off a blade of grass, leaving a jagged edge that invites pests and disease.
A sharp blade makes a nice, clean cut, which helps the grass heal faster and grow thicker.
Is Your Idaho Lawn Ready for a New Best Friend?
Your hard-working lawn deserves a couple of good naps. Hey, so do you!
But don’t sleep on setting up your lawn care.
If you want simple, hassle-free lawn care that offers quality core lawn care services for a healthy green lawn, it doesn’t get easier than Lawn Buddies.
No stressing about which complicated combination of lawn care services will get your lawn back to its beautiful green again.
You don’t have time to fuss with all that. Give yourself a break.
Lawn Buddies features one premium six-visit lawn care program that includes everything your lawn needs to grow healthy and green. Fertilizer, weed treatments, and grub control, all wrapped up in six visits, each perfectly timed throughout the season, so your grass is green and strong and resists weeds.
Choose a professional lawn care service in the Idaho Falls, ID area that bundles your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan that tells you the cost upfront.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Just fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.
Image Source: grass in winter, sprinkler head
