Why does the lawn green up in spring differently?

                                     

Every year many homeowners in Antioch, Lake Villa, Gurnee, Waukegan and Lake Forest look forward to their lawns greening up from winter dormancy.  Many new and existing customers question why their lawn or neighbors lawn is greening up at varying rates.  I am hoping to explain some of the reasons why this happens along with pictures to explain.

                    Lawn is really greening up around mulch bed, why? Soil temperatures

 Each spring seems to bring varying temperatures, sunny days and rainfall totals.  These three factors along with grass types influence the lawn greening up in spring more than any other.  Lawns need soil temperatures to rise above 40 degrees, weekly rainfall to be adequate in the one to two inch range and most importantly many hours of sunlight.  The combination of these three factors as well as grass types determine what lawns and what areas of the lawn green up the fastest.  If certain parts of the lawn are greener than others in early April, it is because one or more of these conditions is more prevalent in these areas.  Grass types green up and produce new green shoot growth at varying temperature ranges as well.  Bluegrass and ryegrasses will green up the earliest with forty degree temperature or higher sections of lawn that are close to sidewalks, driveways, mulch beds or any other light and heat absorbing materials will have warmer soil temperatures.   Fescues tend to green up slower, not until soil temperatures reach the fifties.

            The dark mulch in full sun is absorbing heat from the sun, 102degrees in early April!

 Areas facing south, especially hills facing south, and east this spring have seen the most amount of direct sunlight resulting in warmer soil temperatures in those areas.  Direct sunlight is much more influential to soil temperatures than air temperatures.  A sunny forty degree day will warm up soil temperatures faster than a cloudy sixty degree day.  Therefore, any areas in full shade from bushes or buildings will have much lower soil temperatures and not green up as fast.

                                                 38 degrees in the shade on the same day

                                                        Heavily shaded area of lawn

                                   Same lawn same day, but in full sun area, soil temp 64 degrees

Shaded areas of the lawn require air temperatures to warm up.  The same sunny day that greened up the lawn next to the mulch bed at 102 degrees has 38 degree soil temperatures in the shade.

Therefore, areas of shade and fescue grasses are going to be the slowest to green-up and leave winter dormancy behind.   Keep this in mnd as summer approaches, because the areas that quickest to green up are also going to be the quickest to turn brown and go dormant as soil temperatures exceed the nineties....stay tuned.

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