Tips For Responsibly Watering Your Lawn This Summer
There are simple ways you can save water this summer. Some of it requires a change of thinking. For example, if your region is prone to drought, you may need to give up the idea of a perfect evergreen lawn as it wont hold up in your region of the country in those extremes.
Likewise, if you have sandy soil thats unable to hold water, you should add soil amendments to make it loamier. Loamy soil is like the forest floordark, rich, and able to store water underground.
Here are those 12 tips to help you save water and keep your lawn alive:
So, add soil amendments, such as compost, to loosen up the soil and help its absorption rate. Brinlys tow-behind carts help you tote your soil amendments to your lawn for a makeover. Use our tow or push spreaders to broadcast the amendments and fertilizers throughout your yard.
What To Do If Your Lawn Does Not Have A Sprinkler System
If you do not have an irrigation system, alternatives can be purchased at your local hardware store and can be easily installed. When buying a hose-end sprinkler, the best products are impact sprinklers . Research has shown these sprinklers are the best in putting down a uniform and consistent amount of water.
Timers that can attach to your spigot allow you to schedule waterings through the day, as well as attach multiple hoses to one spigot.
Is My Lawn Getting Enough Water
Water is a key ingredient for a healthy, happy lawn. Our warm-season, drought-tolerant lawn varieties, such as Sir Walter DNA Certified Buffalo, Eureka Premium Kikuyu VG, Tif Tuf, and Sir Grange, require minimal watering. However, all lawns need water to stay lush and green.
One of the most common questions we get asked here at Lilydale Instant Lawn, particularly in Melbournes hotter months, is How do I know I am watering my lawn enough? Theres no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but some factors to take into consideration are:
- Recent weather and rainfall warm or cool, dry or wet, cloudy or clear?
- Water availability and method of watering hose/watering can or sprinkler/irrigation?
- Soil type free-draining/sandy or heavy clay?
- Lawn variety warm-season, drought-tolerant grass or cool-season grass?
- Environment shade or full sun, windy or still?
- General lawn health.
What is the best method to water my lawn?
Generally, we recommend that you use an irrigation system or sprinklers for all lawn types, as this encourages a more even spread of water across the area. Hand watering with a hose doesnt tend to distribute water evenly enough and its time consuming, too.
Make it easy by simply setting up a sprinkler attachment on your hose to cover your entire area. Set a timer and let it do the job for you.
How often should I water establishing warm-season lawns?
How often should I water an established warm-season lawn?
Can I overwater my established lawn?
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Consider Installing A Rain Detector And Automatic Sprinkler System
In Calgary, average water bills increase as much as 30-40% during the spring and summer months due to lawn watering. It may be worth your time to invest in an automatic sprinkler system and a rain detector.
An automatic sprinkler system can be set up to the precise amount of water and frequency of watering for your lawn, and will automatically turn on and off. Coupled with this is often rain detectors, that will shut off the sprinkler system and adjust for the rain collected during the rain fall.
Seven Tips For A Water
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A little education can go a long way toward maintaining and preserving an existing lawn, or establishing a new one, while minimizing water use. Southern California turfgrass experts provide some advice for saving water on your lawn.
Choose the right turfgrass. Warm-season grasses need 20% less water than cool-season grasses and rebound well with even less water. Some good choices are Bermudagrass, Buffalo grass, Kikuyu, St. Augustine, Seashore Paspalum and Zoysia.
Water efficiently. No lawn in any season needs daily watering. UC Riverside turfgrass specialist Jim Baird recommends watering no more than three days a week during the summer . And watering should be done in a way that ensures penetration and minimizes runoff. Baird recommends one to four minutes at a time, three or four times each watering day. And always water in the early morning or the evening, never in the heat of the day.
Adjust watering seasonally. Adjust your watering schedule according to the season, if not more frequently, and turn off sprinklers during the winter when grasses go dormant. Turn off your watering system during cool spells.
Use and maintain sprinklers properly. Lawn sprinklers should be segregated on one station to better control their use and should never do double-duty watering flower beds as well. Check for clogged or broken heads and pipes that can waste water.
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Watering Your Lawn Automatically
There are many different ways to efficiently and automatically water your lawn. There are a few factors you should take into account. Ask yourself the following questions: How much water will I need? How large an area do I need to cover? What shape is my lawn? Is there anything nearby that cant get wet?
Here are a few popular types of sprinklers to consider:
- In-ground sprinklers These systems can be expensive, but are highly efficient. The sprinkler heads pop up automatically to water, and pop right back down when the watering is done, delivering a precise amount of water.
- Pulsating sprinklers This type shoots out water horizontally in a powerful stream, covering a large area easily. Grassroots get the level of moisture they need quickly. However, the pulsing might be too intense for newly seeded or sodded lawns.
- Oscillating sprinklers These are a good alternative for newly seeded lawns, since the force of the water is weaker, and you still get good coverage.
- Hose-end sprinklers These traditional sprinklers are the most common and come in many different types.
Make sure your automatic sprinkler is doing its job, when it needs to do its job. If the forecast calls for a lot of rain, adjust the settings accordingly. Also, make sure it isnt pointed at the streetyou dont want to soak any passersby.
What Are Some Other Considerations To Keep In Mind
Lastly, well share with you some tips thatll help you water your lawn correctly.
First, be sure to establish the type of soil and grass you have. That way, you can water it according to its kind.
For instance, establish if you count on either sandy or clay soil. If your lawn has sandy soil, keep in mind that itll have a more challenging time retaining water. Thats why you should add some soil amendments to make it loamier. However, if you have clay soil, you will need to water it less to avoid any moisture problems.
Likewise, be aware of the difference between cool-season and warm-season grasses. If you have Kentucky bluegrass, which is a cool-season grass, it will likely go dormant during drought seasons. Nevertheless, it will come to life after watering it.
Now that you know how often to water your lawn in summer, along with other essential watering tips, its time for you to implement them and get a healthy yard.
Be sure to contact the team of J& R Chavez Landscaping if you wish professional assistance for your yard! We are here to help you out.
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How Long Should I Water The Lawn
You should water your lawn once or twice a week, giving your grass 1 to 1.5 inches of water each time. The precise number of minutes for each watering will vary from lawn to lawn, depending on factors like the size of your lawn, the type of sprinkler you have, and its settings.
Here are a few methods for finding the number of minutes you should water your lawn.
- Do a can test: Tuna cans are 1 inch tall, and work best for this method. Empty one out, and set it in an area that your sprinkler hits. Turn your sprinkler on, and check the can periodically to see how long it takes to get ½ of an inch of water in there. You can use that to find how many minutes you need to water either once or twice a week.
- Break it down mathematically: Your sprinkler system will have a designated flow rate of gallons per minute, which you can find out from the manufacturer. To find out the number of minutes to run your sprinkler, multiply your lawns square footage by 0.62 gallonswhich is 1 inch of water per square footthen divide that total by the sprinkler flow rate.
- Look at a flow timer: Youll need a timer that measures flow in hundreds of gallons. Multiply the square footage of your lawn by 0.62 gallons, and that will tell you how many gallons you need to give your lawn the water it needs.
Home Lawn Watering Guide
Reviewed by Brad S. FresenburgDivision of Plant Sciences
As much as 80 percent of the water used around the home during summer is used outside. Watering the lawn is the main outside water use. During dry summers, local water authorities may cut off water for outside use or only allow watering on certain days. Both measures are necessary and effective means of reducing water use and relieving the strain on city water supplies.
To avoid severe loss of turfgrass and to conserve water, homeowners should manage their lawns each year in anticipation of water restrictions.
This guide describes that will reduce the need for irrigation while improving the competitiveness and appearance of your lawn.
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Alternatives To A Sprinkler System: Can I Water My Lawn Using A Garden Hose
A garden hose with a suitable sprinkler can work for smaller lawns. The main problem with using a hose for larger lawns is the amount of time it will take to ensure each part of the lawn gets sufficient water. Another issue can be getting the water flow just right: too little and it will take many hours to sufficiently irrigate the lawn too much and there is a risk of rapid run-off, rather than the soil absorbing the water.Water is the one resource that can make or break a lawn. You can have the best yearly program with the best products in the world, but with improper watering, you are throwing money into the ground.
With the unpredictable weather commonly experienced in the midwest, relying on mother nature to water your lawn can lead to disastrous results.Given all the reasons lawn watering is important, we recommend investing in a suitable sprinkler system.
Contact us to find out more about how to get the very best care for your lawn.
How Much Water Does My Lawn Need In Summer
Looking for a lawn that won’t drink an ocean of water to survive our harsh hot Victorian summers?
Drought conditions are impacting a lot of areas at the moment and being environmentally responsible with water use is more important than ever.
At the same time, many of us would also like to install or maintain a beautiful green lawn. Fortunately, it’s only in the most severe of conditions, over a considerable amount of time, that your lawn could suffer to the point where it would completely die off due to lack of water. At Coolabah Turf, we are super proud to specialise in the exclusive supply of drought tolerant turfgrass varieties which, once established, can not only survive, but thrive in our country’s long hot summer seasons.
Warm season turfgrass species commonly used in Australia, like all of those grown in our Coolabah stable, need very little water to survive and are very hardy.
How long can my lawn survive without water?
Despite grass being generally soft and delicate, its actually very resilient. Most common lawn types in Australia can survive extended periods of drought. They will lose colour, become brown and dry, with little to no leaf growth, but they will generally sit dormant until the next rain or irrigation event – similar to how your lawn might sometimes look during winter dormancy with slow to no growth and varying degrees of discolouration.
What can I do to help my lawn survive a drought?
1) Remove thatch
2) Aeration
3) Stay off the lawn
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Apply the water as slowly as possible and, whenever practical, use a drip system or soaker hoses. Impact sprinklers apply water much more slowly than oscillating sprinklers.
How Often To Water Your Lawn
Watering grass daily will result in a shallow root system. And shallow root systems dry out fast, weakening lawns. Infrequent, deep watering encourages grass roots to run deep, developing strong systems below-ground. This allows lawns to be more resilient to changing weather while becoming hardier and disease resistant.
The average lawn needs to be watered three times per week during warm months, providing a total of about one inch of water over the course of the week. Lawns can be watered as little as one to two times per week to achieve the same goal in cooler seasons, when there is naturally less evaporation and a higher chance of rainfall.
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How To Water Your Lawn In The Fall
Starting at the end of August, decrease the frequency of watering to a maximum of once per week or bi-weekly, depending on the needs of your lawn during the summer. As the temperature cools down, your lawn will begin to retain more water as less is lost to evaporation from the hot summer sun.
The rule of thumb is to continue watering your lawn once the days start to become shorter, and just before the first snowfall. This typically occurs in late September to early October. During this time, you can also mow your lawn at a higher height, which will help protect it from moisture loss and prepare it to enter the dormancy stage.
Now that you know the details of how and when to water your lawn across the seasons in Calgary, we recommend to put it all together with these 7 handy tips:
1. Water in the morning to avoid water loss to evaporation
Watering in the morning is a best practice when it comes to maintaining a healthy lawn and saving money on your water bill. If you water during the daytime, it is estimated that at least 25% of the water is lost to heat from the summer sun.
2. Always allow the surface of your soil to completely dry out before re-watering
To drive home the guidelines discussed above, the best time to water your soil is when your grass is showing a few signs that it needs watering. Once you figure out the timeline of your lawn, you can predict when it will need watering next.
Blog: How Much Should I Water My Lawn In Calgary
Best watering practices should always be specific to the region you are living in. If you are living in the Calgary, Alberta region, you have found the best resource to figure out why, and how to water your lawn!
The reason watering is specific to the region is because the turf grass that makes up your lawn is likely a cool-season grass, which is resistant to Calgarys long, harsh and cold winters. Additionally, most soils in Calgary are clay-based and slightly more alkaline in pH, meaning that the turf is more resistant to periods of drought.
Proper watering is crucial, as hydrated soils can decrease insect and weed infestations, ultimately contributing to your goals for a healthier, thicker and weed-free lawn.
Throughout this article, we will cover the basics you need to know to water your lawn throughout the seasons. Including:
- How to water your lawn in the Spring
- How to water your lawn in the Summer
- How to water your lawn in the Fall ‘
- Top 7 best practices when watering your lawn
Ready? Lets dive in.
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Adjust Water Around Trees And Shaded Areas
Turf grass that surrounds large trees may require more water as the extensive root systems of trees can absorb the water from the soil quicker, leaving less for your lawn. Try watering an additional -¼ inch of water around these areas, and increase if you notice signs of dryness.
In consistently shaded areas, such as those under shrubs or under play structures, decks require less water as the shade will keep temperatures cool and lose less water to evaporation. Water these areas sporadically, and only as needed.
