Canberra, Albury, Wodonga, Wagga Wagga - wondering why yout lawn doesn't stay the same lovely green throughout the year?
Some turf grasses power through the cold of winter and continue to grow throughout, but struggle in our hot summers. Others slow right down but continue to require mowing every so often.
Then there’s some that appear to completely stop growing in some climates and only start growing again when temperatures increase again.
What is happening here is called dormancy. Different grasses by nature of their composition, will go into different levels of dormancy depending on the temperature. This allows the grass to minimise metabolic activity which helps the plant to conserve energy.
Once soil temperatures drop below 14 degrees Celsius warm season grasses will start to slow down and go into a certain level of dormancy. This is a protection method they use to protect themselves from the harsh conditions of winter.
Geographically, we have a limited true cool season area compared to North America and Europe, hence the reason warm season varieties like buffalo, couch and kikuyu are much more common than cool season varieties like fescue, rye and bent grass. Because of this limited cool season, warm-season varieties never really go fully dormant and will continue to grow, just at a much slower rate.
A lawn in dormancy will lose some colour as it is conserving energy, this is not anything to worry about and is completely common.
