It may be the dog days of summer,
but that doesn’t mean the heat is going anywhere soon. The blistering heat of August is in full swing, and that means a thirsty lawn! Deeply watering your lawn at least 3 times a week will ensure that the grass forms a deep root system, strengthening it for future droughts. Make sure you really hit those high spots, as the water tends to flow towards the lower areas of the lawn. Just avoid overdoing it and causing it to puddle – this overwhelms the soil and is counterintuitive. And, like anything, timing is key. Hit your lawn as early in the morning as possible! This ensures the lawn will dry by sundown, maximizing effectiveness. What you want to avoid doing is watering the lawn overnight, which sets the lawn up perfectly for disease. If waking up early to water the lawn isn’t your cup of tea, almost all Rainbird and Toro systems allow you to preset watering times so you never have to worry about drying out again. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, well, you’ve come to the right place!
You may be asking yourself how exactly you’re supposed to figure out when your lawn is in need of some water; there are multiple ways to go about doing that. According to Scotts, simply walking in your grass and seeing if the footprints go away is an easy way to tell. If your footprints stay in the grass, it’s because the grass doesn’t have the required moisture to spring back up! Another way to tell if your lawn is thirsty is by just looking at it. If it appears brown or a golden green, this means the grass is dormant, so it’s not really dead. Soon after you water it, it should regain its color and return back to normal.
When watering your lawn, it is important to take into consideration just how much water you are putting down. The water should go about 6-8 inches deep throughout your lawn, penetrating the root systems fully and ensuring they have enough to drink. This would require about 1 to 1.5 inches of water on a weekly basis, so you can put down that water all at once or break it up into multiple sessions. As long as it has that much to drink, your lawn should thrive. Avoid exceeding 1.5 inches, as that could overwater your lawn and harm the grass.
So, you’ve done everything we talked about, but you are wondering if you did it right. Well, simply take a screwdriver and insert it into the soil every 10-15 minutes or so while watering and make a note of how deep it goes and how long it’s been watered for. If you can easily stick a screwdriver into the grass at a depth of about 6 inches, then you’ve done it right! Remember how long it took to get to that level and simply time it the same next time you water. According to Scotts, the screwdriver test is a reliable way to see if your lawn is hydrated or thirsty. These are all good practices for taking care of a lawn, and doing further research at your discretion may help your lawn look even better! Regardless, we thank you for reading this and wish you all the best with your yards!