home + garden

Q Can you give me some tips for my dried-out lawn? It's brown in spots and actually crunches when I walk on it.

A Here are some guidelines for helping your landscape through dry times:

• If possible, water grass, even if it's just enough to keep it alive. Depending on the type of grass, the lawn's age and the length of the dry spell, stopping all waterings can result in a dead lawn. If you can, deliver about an inch of water every week to the lawn. (To measure an inch, put an empty tuna can under the sprinkler. Time how long it takes to fill the can, then water for that amount of time next time.) During extreme heat, or with sandy or hard, compact soils, you'll want to shorten periods between waterings, perhaps a half-inch twice a week.

Do not cut the grass. If you must, make sure that the mower blade is sharp and that the height has been adjusted to keep grass higher. Some established lawns can get by with less water, ½ to ¾ of an inch a week, experts say. But use your judgment. Grass will turn a blue-gray color in patches, or it will not spring back when you walk across it. And remember, there are no guarantees that a lawn will recover undamaged from a drought.

If you are under water restrictions, water thoughtfully and consider buying a rain barrel. Using collected rainwater can help bypass municipal water restrictions and bans. (An inch of rain can yield 600 gallons of runoff from an average-sized roof.)

• Water trees. If you can't do them all, prioritize. Tend the newest trees first (less than three years in the ground). For established trees, water the birch, sugar maples and other plantings native to cool forests. Then all other trees, including evergreens. Drought stresses trees, making them more susceptible to insect damage and disease.

Give them about 5 gallons of water. That will sink in and quench thirsty roots. The "leaky bucket" does this well. Put a few nail holes in the bottom of a five-gallon bucket, place it under the tree and fill it with water. Refill at least every week. Or use a garden hose set to trickle, a soaker hose laid upside down and snaked under the branches, or a sprinkler adjusted to soak an area under the trees as far out as the branches extend, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum suggests.

Send your questions to Fixit in care of the Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488, or call 612-673-9033, or e-mail fixit@startribune.com. Past columns are available at www.startribune.com/fixit. Sorry, Fixit cannot supply individual replies.