Want to know how to get the most luscious lawn with the least amount of water wastage? Keep reading to find out how!
Every gardening enthusiast wants the most pristine and pretty garden on the block to make their neighbors green with envy, but what’s a garden without grass?
A manicured lawn consists of well- maintained, evenly cut and precisely watered grass.
While you can see the evenness of your mowing and the consistency of color throughout your grass, how are you supposed to tell if your grass is watered enough?
Grass may grow easily, but it takes some time and effort to figure out how to get it there.
You need to figure out what type of grass to grow, when to plant it, how to fertilize it and of course, when and how much to water it!
How to Water Grass
Whether you use a hose or a sprinkler, you should know that watering your grass isn’t just about sprinkling some water on top and moving on.
Grass requires a lot of water to grow healthy and happy. What’s a lot of water? 1 to 1 ½ inch to be exact.
How to get to that amount cannot be measured through time because every area and household has different water pressure and different equipment that they use to water their house.
This doesn’t mean that you need to water your lawn to 1 inch in every session, but rather that you need to maintain the one inch spread across a week.
There are a couple of ways you can measure this. If you want to be technical, you can buy a rain gauge and see that you are getting an inch of water in it per week.
If you don’t want to do that, take an empty, small container and put it next to your sprinkler.
See how long it takes to get to an inch of water. Suppose it took an hour; divide it among the amount of times you are watering per week (30 minutes for twice a week, 20 minutes for 3 times a week) and water your grass for that amount of time.
A quick test to check if you are watering your grass enough is to push a thin metal object into the grass up to 6 inches.
If you can’t easily push it through, you might need to water more. If the water from your grass is flowing out and down the street, you might be watering too much!
Best Time to Water Grass
Morning time is the best to water your grass; the earlier, the better. This is because it is a cooler time of day with less wind; cooler temperatures and lowered wind force will ensure that evaporation is slower. You will be using less water and your grass won’t be thirsty because it will be moist longer.
Another reason why you would water in the morning rather than late evening (even though that is a cool time of day as well) is that you want your grass to be dry overnight. If you let your grass remain wet through the night, you risk fungal and bacterial growth in your garden.
How Often You Need To Water Grass
You should ideally water your grass between 2 and 3 times a week. This will ensure that your grass stays irrigated and not dry out. But why not water it every day then? The reason why it is not recommended to water your grass every day is because that can give it a shallow root system.
Shallow roots tend to dry out faster because they are weak and can’t reach the water that is soaked into the soil. Intense watering 2 to 3 times a week encourages roots to grow deep, so they are able to absorb water from deep within the soil.
This will make your grass stronger and more drought-resistant in the dryer, hotter weather.
Do not think that you only need to be vigilant about watering your grass during the summer months. Winter watering is important because if your soil is dry, your grass is more prone to weather damage.
Avoid that by watering your grass year round. The only difference is, in extremely hot weather, you might need to water a little more because of evaporation. Keep a check on how much water your grass is getting through a rain gauge.
Benefits of Water Timing
There a few different benefits of timing when you water your grass. First, it saves you money! If you time your watering, like watering early in the morning, you are using less water to give the same amount of hydration to your grass as you would at a hotter time in the day; the grass is already wet with dew and the hot sun isn’t evaporating the water from the grass.
Water timing to a cooler time of day helps water to be retained by the grass because it evaporates slower. Again, you are reducing the amount of water needed and how often you need to water your grass.
Finally, the less water you use, the fewer nutrients you are taking away from the soil. Leaching can be a problem in overwatered gardens; this will once again cost you money to re-fertilize the soil and put back some nutrients.
Water timing is extremely important to have the best looking lawn possible!
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