With the mild drought stress over the last week, lawns are extremely susceptible to cosmetic damage from mowers, spreaders, and human traffic (photos). Drought stress may not have been easily visible before mowing. Turf likely was at the drought stressed stage where footprints (or mower tracks) remain in the turf and don’t snap back like well-watered turf, or may have been entering the stage where it turns a bluish-gray color. Severity of the damage depends on the stage of drought stress and weight of the mower (zero-turn radius mowers and ride-on spreaders that are now so popular are much heavier than the walk-behind models). With rain and irrigation, the turf in these tracks should grow back in the next couple of weeks.
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