This year's seen a more brown-coloured state of our grass throughout Portage la Prairie. 

"It's just one of those years where we're in a bit of a drought condition," says Dave Oshust, owner of Go-Green Lawn & Landscaping. "We've had less than three inches of rain all year. If you don't maintain a regular watering of your lawns, they will go dormant, which is brown. They're not dead, they're just dormant. And then they will come back when we get some of the fall rains."

He says the best remedy for dormant grass is watering the lawn with at least one inch of water per week. Oshust explains nutrition is as equally important. Application of regular fertilizer before you water, especially in spring, will build up the cell structure and fend off the ravages of drought.

Oshust says the last four or five years saw timely rains that maintained the grass. Torrential rains are all around us this year, but we've not been getting any of them. He notes if nutritional value isn't maintained under these conditions, a disease called rust can develop. It's already starting to show this year. Republic Park had a bad case of it last year, and this spring saw the PRRA fund his company to apply fertilizers and nutrients. The grass there has been holding up great since then. So, Oshust adds nutritional value is required along with water to avoid the rust problem.