News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
This week’s NOAA Drought Monitor shows more than half of the Upper Cumberland in need of rain, and a local Ag Extension Agent said that means homeowners need to water their lawns.
Overton County UT Agriculture Extension Agent Jason Garrett said most homeowners lawns have fescue grass. Fescue grass is a cool-season type of grass that usually goes semi-dormant during the summer months due to lack of moisture. Garrett said the dry conditions are causing problems for grass in the Upper Cumberland.
“When you have lawns that go semi-dormant and especially with this drought you are gonna have a lot of filth come up,” Garrett said. “You are gonna have weeds, crabgrass, dallisgrass, and things that you don’t want in it, so that’s what happens in a drought.”
Only Clay and Pickett Counties are showing normal rainfall right now, with the driest conditions the further south you go in the Upper Cumberland. Putnam County rainfall finished some 2.5 inches below normal.
Garrett said homeowners can run up the water bill to combat the dry conditions. Garrett said the hot temperatures combined with dry conditions can ruin top soil which is essential for healthy grass.
“Topsoil is what contains all the nutrients, it can retain moisture,” Garrett said. “So a lot of that depends on the depth of your topsoil layer. The deeper amount of topsoil the more healthier your lawn will be. Now when all that layer dries out it can be detrimental.”
The Upper Cumberland had a long-term drought last fall. But Garrett said fortunately we were able to come back from it.
“This spring we had a lot of rain,” Garrett said. “So we know we got back on the significant level of it and then all of a sudden, bam here we go drought, dry, and here in Livingston where my office is I mean it’s just, I mean it is getting brown, I mean it is getting very dry.”
Garrett said this drought has affected many cow pastures in Overton County as drinking ponds have dried up. Farmers feel the drought as crops such as corn, soybeans, and hay rely on summer rains to help them thrive during typical dry months in the fall.
