Those of you without sprinkling systems depend heavily on the rain for irrigating your lawns, and providing the water necessary for a beautiful, green lawn.  However, rain can have the opposite affect on your lawn when you get too much of it.  

Flooding Can Drown Your Lawn

In Ohio, we typically have terribly wet springs with plenty of rain, melting snow, and other forms of precipitation.  Getting too much water can saturate your soil, air gaps, and drown your roots.  A root system that cannot breathe will die, causing dead grass patches in your lawn. 

Fungus & Wet Problems

Too much snow on your lawn can cause snow mold to grow in the spring, and too much water on your lawn can cause fungus to grow and actually cause your roots to rot.  Like snow mold, little can be done to treat this.  Your best bet is proper drainage and to eliminate standing water.

Saturated Lawns - Tread Lightly

Another common problem with heavy amount of rains is structural damage caused by foot traffic and machinery on lawns.  Saturated lawns are prone not only to damage, but also compaction with the high level of clay in Ohio’s soil.  Soil compaction can lead to problems in the season, with roots not getting proper oxygen, and your lawn becoming thin in areas.

Fight Back with Proper Drainage

Proper drainage can go a long way to help out lawn care.  The most obvious solutions are making sure that your gutters, storm drains and grates are all cleaned out from debris and dirt that accumulated over the winter months.  Additionally, soil can to be added to low areas, eliminating standing water.  A more expensive choice, corrugated drain tile can be added to your lawn to help with draining after heavy downpours.