I'm looking for some help from readers. My lawnmower has a problem and I'm not sure what's up. Here's what happened. I was about half-way through mowing the backyard when my mower just idled down. It didn't die, but it suddenly lacked horsepower. There's no problem with the throttle cable or the throttle assembly as near as I can tell.

It quickly dawned on me that I haven't changed the spark plug in at least two seasons, so I did that. Even thought the old one looked bad, the new one didn't solve the problem. My particular Briggs and Stratton engine doesn't have a fuel filter as near as I can tell. I'm wondering if it might be bad gas.

Any suggestions out there?

Here's this week's Turf Tip on letting your lawn go dormant during the hot days of July and August. Basically, cool-season lawns are pretty drought-resistant and will go into a state of dormancy if they don't get enough water. This stage is characterized by browning of the foliage and slowed growth. Pay particular attention to the warning about going "dormant, but not dead."

Our friends over at the University of Minnesota also suggest that you "avoid play or traffic on dormant lawns." Read their take here. There's also information as part of the Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series or SULIS on a practice called "syringing." I'd never heard of that, but it's appropriate to this topic because it involves trying to save your lawn from heat stress by giving it a daily light application of water to wet the leaves of the grass. Also some good information on watering.

Here's this week's tip on watering. If you know people that water every day, you can tell them that not only are the spending a lot of money on their water bill, but they are not doing their lawn any favors. Find out how frequently you should water and how much water you should be putting on.

As far as when to water, experts say early morning is best. During the day, you'll lose some of the water to evaporation before it can soak in. At night, the water sits on the blades without evaporating which can lead to disease problems.

Next week, we'll be talking about how to let your grass go dormant during the hottest parts of the summer. Even if this is your plan, you might still have to water your lawn.

Sorry folks. I've been on vacation and forgot to post last week's Turf Tip in which I talk with Steve about what I should be doing now as we head into the hottest time of the summer. Unfortunately, because of vacation time, I still haven't gotten that middle fertilization done. It's raining today, so hopefully I can do it tomorrow.

Here's Thursday's Turf Tip on mowing. I had some fun with this one; speeding up a long take of me mowing at the end and struggling at first to even get my mower started. It really did take me a few pulls to get it going, so I incorporated that into the story. The main point of the story is that many people cut their grass too short. I was surprised at how high I had to set my mower deck to leave three inches behind. Next week: mulching versus bagging.

Update: Here' are some pictures of my lawn this week before mowing and after. The image on the right shows just how tall my grass has gotten between mowing. You really shouldn't let your grass get this tall before mowing, but we've had so much rain lately that it's been hard finding time to get out and do it.

The image on the left is after I mowed. I set my mower deck up to just a few clicks away from its highest setting to leave three inches. I left a strip behind the ruler that wasn't mowed yet. That stuff is really tall, so I was taking off more than I should have to get a proper mulching effect. I talk about that more in next week's turf tip.

Here's Thursday's Turf Tip. It's an interview with Steve in which we talk about where I'm at and what I still need to do. Most of the heavy lifting is done now (power-raking, aerating, fertilizering and over-seeding). One thing I should point out, the before and after shots you see early in the story look pretty dramatic but you should remember that when the first video was shot in early May, my lawn really hadn't started growing since we had such a cold spring. Still, it looks kind of cool to see the lush green in the "after" shot.