When the summer months come, most people immediately gear up for summer, which means breaking out the popsicles, swimming pools, and slip n’ slides! Slip n’ slides are easy to set up and will entertain most kids for hours. However, will using a slip n’ slide kill your grass, and if so, how long will that take?
It can take as little as one day of using a slip n’ slide to kill spots of grass. However, if the heat is bad enough, leaving a slip n’ slide out for a day or overnight will result in huge yellow patches on the lawn. Sometimes it will take two or three days to do any kind of damage.
If you run a household with lots of kids, you will surely want to know how to repair your lawn from slip n’ slide damage. Read on to learn what to expect from slip n’ slides and how to repair the damage they might inflict on your lawn. Hopefully, you will be able to better protect your yard in the future!
Slip n’ Slide Damage
As mentioned before, it could take as little as a few hours out in the sun for your slip n’ slide to leave yellow patches on your grass. Of course, this depends somewhat on how severe the temperature is, but believe me when I say it will not take much time for your slip n’ slide to leave its mark.
As a general rule, it is good to pack up the slip n’ slide the moment you are done using it. When that plastic heats up in the sun, it cooks the grass until it turns yellow and begins to die. This is why you cannot afford to leave it lying out in the sun with the water running. Plus, with the added pressure of bodies walking and sliding across the mat all day long, the grass doesn’t stand much of a chance if that slip n’ slide sits there for hours and hours on end.
If you are starting to see yellow splotches on your grass after using a slip n’ slide, it’s a fair bet that your grass has suffered quite a bit of damage. However, all is not as lost as it seems. The grass might be turning yellow, but if you look closely enough, you may be able to see spots of green right at the roots. This means that the grass isn’t dead, just dormant. If this is the case, there is still hope that you can revive it!
Repairing The Damage
If your grass is showing green towards the roots, you might be able to save it, so don’t lose hope. However, as mentioned before, slip n’ slides tend to bake the grass until the tips die or go dormant while dealing with excessive heat. Therefore, one of the most important things to do is rely on regular and targeted watering.
Since the grass is so dried out, you will want to regularly water the dead or dying spots. Obviously, overwatering will do just as much damage as underwatering, so make sure you’re careful. However, a good water supply will definitely be instrumental in nursing your lawn back to health.
It is recommended that you water your lawn either in the morning or in the evening. Watering in the evening is okay, but it’s honestly better to water in the early morning, preferably between the hours of one and five. This will allow the grass to soak up as much moisture as is needed. The excess will all be dried up by the rising sun. If you water your grass at night, there is a chance that too much water will soak down to the roots and cause decay and rot.
You might be tempted to fertilize the places that are dying, but don’t. While fertilizer is often necessary for dead grass, this grass is not necessarily all the way dead. Fertilization will not necessarily nurse it back to health; it will just encourage new grass leaves, which isn’t really necessary. Keep the watering up, and you should be fine.
While you’re at it, make sure you, your kids, and everybody else stay off the yellow spots. This will help it to grow faster without the added pressure of foot traffic. (Source)
Pros and Cons to Slip n’ Slides
By now, you know that a slip n’ slide can do a number on any grass. Now you are probably wondering whether or not a slip n’ slide is even worth the hassle. Let’s find out.
Pros
A slip n’ slide is all the fun you could ask for on a hot summer day. Most slip n’ slides will keep young kids busy for hours on end, which means they’ll sleep well at night! In addition, slip n’ slides are effortless to set up. Some newer and more complex ones may require a little bit of air to be pumped into them, but most of them need a hose hooked up to function.
In comparison to swimming pools and other water-based toys, slip n’ slides are quite affordable. They are a cheap choice with a big fun factor attached to them. Additionally, they are a safe alternative to swimming pools. There’s no need to worry about kids hitting their heads or little ones falling in and drowning.
Cons
The first and most obvious issue with slip n’ slides is that they can turn your lawn yellow. Of course, if you are careful and diligent in getting it put away on time, this may not be a problem. Unfortunately, this is never a guarantee since different temperatures bring different circumstances.
Additionally, you do have to keep the water running for the entire duration of your use which may be considered wasteful. For example, a slip n’ slide might use less water than a pool initially, but if you’re running it daily, this could result in a massive water bill appearing at the end of the summer.