Summer barbecues are a great way to keep yourself entertained and make use of the yard you’ve gone to such great lengths to keep in good condition. But all that activity can take its toll on your grass. Though there are steps you can take to minimize the impact your epic summer party has on your lawn, cleaning up afterwards can be just as important. Your Denver sprinkler repair pros want to help. Here are a few simple tips to help you clean up your lawn so it stays as beautiful as you want it to all season long.

Make Trashcans Readily Available
During the party, keep trashcans where guests can easily access them. This will help reduce the risk of food waste, soda, and other acidic products from seeping into your grass. And if guests know where the trashcans are, they’ll show the initiative to use them every time. After all, they don’t want to trash your yard. But if you don’t have a good place for them to deposit food waste, plates, and cans, what other choice do they have?

Pick Up Balloon Bits Immediately
Balloons are great fun for kids and adult alike. But no matter how careful you are, those thin bits of plastic will probably pop. Unfortunately, balloons have the tendency to shatter into a bunch of little shreds and those shreds can hurt your grass, your sprinkler system, and your lawn mower. As soon as a balloon pops, pick up the pieces. This way, you won’t forget after the party and you’ll be able to mow your lawn in a few days without damaging the blades.

Keep a Garden Hose Ready
Soda and food is incredibly acidic and they can damage your grass, leaving ugly brown spots in their wake. The best way to keep your lawn healthy with inevitable spills is to rinse the grime away. After the party, spray down areas of your lawn where food and drinks got spilled. This will dilute the acidity and keep your grass in good shape. Just make sure to wait until after the party is over. Otherwise, you’ll end up creating a mud puddle that your guests could slip and fall in. 

Make Sure the Sprinkler Heads Are Retracted
When your lawn’s sprinkler system runs, the heads raise up above the grass to distribute water. Sometimes, those heads get stuck and that puts your guests at risk for injury and exposes your system to damage. Before the party, make sure the sprinkler heads are completely retracted. And do the same before you start cleaning up. This will give you a chance to inspect each head for damage and schedule an appointment should your system need repairs. 

Pick Up Decorations
It’s tempting to leave your party decorations out overnight, but that doesn’t mean you should. Even small amounts of weight on the lawn can damage the turf and hurt the health of your grass. When this happens, you’ll end up brown patches, bare patches, and indentations in the soil itself. Often, these areas need to be reseeded in order to restore them to their former growth levels. After the party, pick up all decorations, lawn games, tables, trash cans, and anything else that’s made its way onto your lawn. The sooner you do, the less damage those items will cause.

Give the Turf Time to Rest
You need some downtime to recover after a party or backyard barbecue and so does your lawn. Try to keep your family’s activities in the backyard to a minimum for a day or two after the event. This will give the turf time to bounce back and helps the soil recover more quickly. Resuming normal activity immediately causes the soil to compress further, creating a host of issues ranging from poor grass health to bad drainage. If you have to, set up barriers to remind your family to stay off the lawn for a few days. Shift games and activities to the front yard if you can or use the side of the backyard that saw the least amount of traffic during the party. 

Get the Grass Standing Again
Grass blades are meant to bend and shift. Though they’ll often look flattened after a party, it’s not always irreparable. You just need to give your grass a helping hand. Use your fingers or a leaf rake to gently rake the blades back into standing position. Just take care to use a very gentle pressure on the rake. Otherwise, you could damage the roots by accident. If the roots are unharmed beneath the soil, the blades will stay upright after a few hours. If the roots are damaged, you’ll want to call your landscaping team to see what you need to do to fix your lawn. 

Test Your Sprinkler System
Unfortunately, accidents happen and your sprinkler system may have gotten damaged during the party. The next day, test your system to make sure the heads all work and that the spray still moves where it’s supposed to go. If anything looks off or you notice that one head just isn’t working, schedule a repair appointment as soon as possible. Running the system with any kind of damage puts you at risk for underground leaks and further damage which threatens the overall health of your landscaping. The sooner you get your system inspected and repaired, the better off your yard and your lawn will be.

Don’t Put Off Repairs and Maintenance
This summer, make your yard the neighborhood hangout spot. Go ahead and host that barbecue and let the kids play lawn games with abandon. With a little TLC and attention, your grass will thrive this summer. But if anything goes wrong, don’t put repairs off until fall. Contact us to schedule a routine maintenance appointment today and let our experienced sprinkler installation and repair team make sure your system is running properly week after week. Our goal is to help you keep your lawn entertainment-ready as long as the weather stays warm and beautiful this year.