Heavy rain this weekend and again Monday night produced flash flooding conditions throughout North Georgia and Metro Atlanta.

Summer storms can unleash copious amounts of rain in a very short amount of time. Some storms can drop as much as 3-4 inches of rain in under an hour!

I talked with UGA Professor and Turfgrass Specialist Clint Waltz about what to do when flooding rainfall wreaks havoc on the yard.

Waltz recommends exercising patience with your lawn after a heavy rain.

“Avoid mowing over flooded lawns, because soil is more prone to compaction whenever they are wet.”

However, the forecast for mid-July calls for drier conditions, and afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid 90s.

What to Do During a Drought

As of July 2, the U.S. Drought Index indicates that D1 Severe Drought and D2 Moderate Drought conditions have returned to Metro Atlanta.

After weeks of hot temperatures and little to no rainfall, your lawn may be looking more like straw than a lush, green carpet.

Waltz notes that an ounce of prevention can save a pound of frustration finding a cure.

“During a drought, prevent lawn damage by keeping proper mowing heights, and continue to fertilize the lawn.”

Mowing heights are important because they optimize the root depth of the grasses in your lawn.

“The greater the rooting depth, the more soil volume to pull water and nutrients out of. So if I have a greater depth to pull from, I can make it from one rainfall event to the next, and hopefully keep maintaining quality in our lawn, too,” Waltz says.

“But you have to do that before you get to the stress event of the drought. Once you get to the drought, it’s a matter of hopefully you have done all you can do.”

Burning Questions... Does pet waste harm your lawn?

Waltz is a lawn expert, and I just had to ask -- what happens if there’s a little too much of a canine “thunder sprinkle”, or perhaps some “brown hail” on the lawn?

Does that really impact the grass, or is that mainly for the health of everybody around?

“It’s more aesthetics, some of our grasses will show some injury, but it’s temporary. It’s nothing that is permanent. Our grasses are pretty resilient, so they’ll bounce back from it,” Waltz said.

“The ‘sprinkle’, those spots more often comes from girl dogs, the boy dogs like to meter it out, so you don’t get quite the intensity on it,” Waltz noted.

“As far as the ‘brown hail’, that’s just natural fertilizer. That’s organic. So all these folks that want to go organic -- thumbs up for letting Fido do what he has to do,” Waltz said.

But of course, that’s fine in the backyard. Keep it clean in the front yard, since it’s more likely to be visited by friends and neighbors!

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