Your Guide to Lawn Watering

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Melissa - General Lawn Turf Blogs

Do you see some of your neighbours out every afternoon watering their lawn and feel guilty that you aren’t doing the same? Don’t feel bad – they aren’t getting it right.

The Harden Park Lawns team has put together their guide to lawn watering you can do the right thing for the health of your lawn as well as the environment and your wallet.

Once established, your lawn requires deep but less frequent watering. The idea is that you give the lawn only the amount of water that it needs but you ensure that the water gets right down deep to the root system that needs it. The additional benefit is that this practice encourages a deeper and therefore more stable root system.

How much is enough?

The best advice is to keep an eye and an ear on the weather forecasts – if significant rainfall is predicted then watering the lawn yourself is probably not likely. If the forecasted rain doesn’t eventuate, then you can water. Plan to water your lawn about twice per week but this will depend on rainfall, current temperatures and the type of lawn you have.

The aim is to achieve 2.5cms of water of the entire lawn when you water. Not sure how to measure this? Easy – place a container on the lawn and water the lawn in an even fashion. Once the container holds 2.5cms of water – you are done. If you use a sprinkler system you can use this system to determine how long you need to turn the sprinklers on for next time. If you use a timed sprinkler system you can use this system to determine how long you need to program the sprinklers for.

When is best?

So we have already established that you don’t need to be out watering every day but when is best? Typically early morning is the best time to water your lawn. Early morning will allow the water to get to where it needs to be before the heat of the day causes too much moisture to be lost to evaporation. On the flip side, watering early will allow any excess moisture to be evaporated before it gets cooler after the sun goes down – excess moisture and cooler temperatures can make your lawn susceptible to mildew, fungi and pest that feed on lawns in a weakened state.