A customer asked me this week whether she should keep mowing through the dry weather or stop altogether. It's the right question, because the habits that keep a lawn tidy in a normal June will actively hurt it in a dry July. Here's what I change when the rain stops, and what I leave well alone.
Raise the cut, and mow less often
Grass under drought stress is living off its roots. Scalping it short takes away the leaf it needs to feed those roots, and short grass lets the sun bake the soil underneath. So when a dry spell sets in I put the mower up a notch or two — leaving the grass noticeably longer than a spring cut — and I stretch the gap between mows. Growth slows right down in dry weather anyway; if it isn't growing, it doesn't need cutting. A slightly shaggy lawn in a dry month is a healthy one.
Leave the clippings where they fall
This is the one that surprises people, because for most of the year I cart clippings away. In a dry spell, short clippings are worth more on the lawn than in the bin: they fall in among the grass and sit on the soil like a thin mulch, holding moisture in. The trick is that they need to be short — which they will be, because the grass is barely growing. If you've left it long enough that the mower is dropping clumps, rake the clumps off; a smothering mat helps nobody.
Don't feed it
Feed needs moisture to work. Fertiliser on a drought-stressed lawn either sits there doing nothing or, worse, scorches it. Whatever the bag promises, it waits until the soil is properly damp again.
A brown lawn is asleep, not dead
This is the bit that saves people money and worry. An established lawn that's gone straw-brown in a dry summer hasn't died — it's gone dormant, which is grass doing exactly what grass evolved to do. When the autumn rain arrives it greens up again, usually faster than you'd believe. Around here the clay soils hold enough moisture at depth that established lawns come back reliably.
So I don't water established lawns, and I don't recommend paying anyone to. Sprinklers on a dormant lawn are money and water spent fighting something that isn't a problem. If the brown patches bother you into autumn, that's the time for repair work — overseeding and a bit of renovation in September set a lawn up to cope better with next year's dry spell, and it's a job I do a lot of.
Where the water should actually go
If you're rationing watering-can trips in a dry spell, the order is simple: anything planted this year first — new trees, shrubs and perennials haven't got their roots down yet and genuinely can die — then pots and hanging baskets, which dry out fastest of all, then the veg patch. Established lawns come last, which in practice means not at all.
When you do water, water properly and rarely rather than a little every evening. A good soak once or twice a week reaches the roots and encourages them downwards; a daily sprinkle wets the surface, encourages shallow rooting, and mostly evaporates. Early morning or evening, so the water goes into the soil instead of the air. A layer of mulch over beds — compost, bark, even those short grass clippings — keeps what you've applied where it's useful.
What this looks like on my rounds
Through a dry spell my regular visits shift shape: less mowing, more of everything else — hedges, edges, beds, the jobs that pile up while the grass pauses. The lawn gets a higher, less frequent trim, and it gets left alone otherwise. If your lawn's gone brown and you're not sure whether it's dormancy or something worse (dry patch and chafer damage can masquerade as drought), I'm happy to have a look next time I'm in Ledbury or nearby — or send me a note with a photo and I'll tell you honestly whether it needs anything at all.