The Importance of Proper Lawn Watering

Most people tend to overwater their yard compared to underwatering it. While newly installed yards and grasses should be watered regularly, already established turf should be watered deeper but not as often. Doing so allows the roots of the grass to travel deeper, making a healthy, stronger, and more nutritious yard. 

How much should you water? 

 Once a yard is established, watering about 6 inches deep seems to work well for most yards. Depending on a particular sprinkler system, this might imply that watering for 30 minutes is adequate. It is also important that once a yard is fully saturated that it dries out before another cycle of irrigation. Checking to see if your yard is ready for another application of water is very straightforward. Simply stick a screwdriver or other probe entirely into the ground and if the last 2 inches of the probe (closest to your hand) is dry, then your yard can be watered again. Grass types are also another important factor when deciding how much you should water. Cold season grasses such as tall fescue and Kentucky blue grass will on average require 20% more water as opposed to warm season grasses such as bermuda grass and buffalo grass. 

Are you overwatering? 

 Having a yard that is too saturated makes it almost impossible to enjoy. Getting your shoes and socks soaked every time you walk outside to the shed makes for quite the headache. Not to mention, it’s easier to create ruts in your yard while mowing. More importantly, over watering will eventually lead to a shallow root system as the grass roots won’t need to travel down deeper to receive nutrients to survive; the water is always right at the surface. Yards with shallow root systems are very easy to tear-up when engaging in recreational activities such as playing sports or moving the grill around to the back patio, let alone mowing and constantly putting pressure and stress on your landscape.

When should you water?

 A huge and common mistake that most homeowners make when caring for their yard is selecting the time of day to water. A large portion of homeowners and property managers like to run their sprinklers during the daytime hours while they are at work or taking care of other business, that way when they get home in the evening, they don’t have to worry about the sprinkler system going off and ruining the family get-together they’ve had planned for weeks. While this might seem convenient, it is actually a big waste of water and can actually be causing harm to your beautiful landscape. In order for grass and other plants to receive water and nutrients, the xylem (the tissue of the plant located in the root structure that carries food and water up to the plant) needs to be saturated and have available materials to grow. Continuing, watering during the day leads to most of it being evaporated and not truly accomplishing much besides upsetting your bank account and your neighbor who is frantically trying to mow his yard to avoid getting soaked.

On a more serious note, watering in the day, especially during the hot summer months, leads to a high chance that your yard and plants can contract fungi and other various diseases from watering in the heat. To avoid this altogether, homeowners should water their yard after the sun has gone down or in the early A.M. hours before sunrise. This allows the water to fully absorb into the ground, giving the xylem of your plants the best possible chance to soak up those nutrients!

Tip: Strategically timing your sprinkler system by running your front yard zone at 4 A.M. is a great way to avoid getting soaked before leaving for work in the morning!