#HomeTipTuesday
One of the main ingredients to creating a healthy, green lawn is knowing how much water to deliver. Both over-watering and not watering enough can have damaging consequences for your lawn.
So how much watering is needed?
Typically, you’ll want to water anywhere from 1 to 1.5 inches per week. During normal conditions, you’ll want to water twice a week at a rate of ½ an inch each session. During dry or drought conditions, you can go up to 3 times a week at ½ an inch per session.
Make sure to space your watering sessions out so that the soil has a chance to dry between waterings. If the soil is constantly wet you may start to see fungal growth.
How long does it take to accumulate ½ an inch of water?
Sprinklers will vary on the rate of water delivered so you’ll want to get a rain gauge
from your local hardware store to help determine the amount of time it takes to reach ½ an inch of water.
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| Rain gauge available here |
Place the rain gauge in the center of the stream to get an even distribution (not at the end or close to the sprinkler). Then, run the sprinkler to measure how long it takes to accumulate ½ an inch (it could take 20 to 45 minutes). Once you've hit the ½ inch mark, you know your run time for the sprinkler.
When do you start watering your lawn?
1. You can usually do a visual inspection of your lawn to determine when it is time to start watering. When you begin to see hints of brownish-grey areas appearing, you’ll want to start your watering routine.
2. Another way is a walking test – walk across your lawn and if the foot prints lay flat and don't show signs of rebounding, then the lawn needs to be hydrated.
Over-watering
Watering deeper than the root zone is wasted water. Over-watering can also promote brown patches or other fungal diseases, so space out your watering sessions to allow time for the soil to dry a bit.
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