Early morning grass by Yes Man
Love it or hate it, if you live in the suburbs like me you most likely have a lawn, an area of grass at least in front or your home, if not completely around.
Lawns needs a whole lot of care to keep them looking reasonable, something I’ve written about before, and that care most often includes periodic watering.
When to water your lawn
The main trick to getting watering right, to keep your costs and water use down without killing your lawn, is knowing when your grass needs water.
Even if, like me, you don’t love your lawn, you’ll probably hate a dead lawn even more!
There are a couple of simple tests which will let you know when your grass needs water and they don’t need any specialist equipment or knowledge. Let’s take a look.
The eyeball-it lawn watering test
Although my garden in North-East Kansas had heavy rain last week, by Sunday my grass didn’t look right. The eyeball-it method of knowing when your grass needs water is pretty simple and effective and it doesn’t need any planning ahead.
Some areas of your grass dry out faster than others. In my lawn these are caused by competition from tree roots and shallow patches of soil where the house builders left rocks near the surface. These patches are like grass alarms – they’re early warning signs that your grass is about to die.
As soon as you see patches which are dull, slightly shriveled, bluish-green, or turning yellow get the sprinklers out and on.
The poke-it lawn watering test
Take a sharp object, which is at least 6″ long, and poke it down into the soil of your lawn. The best object is a metal screwdriver (don’t use your partner’s best one). I don’t have a screwdriver just for this task so I tend to grab an alternative. Any hard, long narrow object works – I’ve used pieces of stiff wire, bamboo canes, and even hard sticks. I really should invest in a screwdriver!
When your lawn is well watered the sharp object should penetrate to a depth of 6″ to 8″ (15 cm to 20 cm). If the soil is rock-hard and you can’t get your object in more than 1″ it’s time to water. The poke-it test is very useful too after watering to see if you applied enough. Ideally you want at least 6″ of penetration after watering and then you wait until you have 1″ before watering again.
Which lawn watering test is best?
While the eyeball-it method works, it only works well if you’re a quick-response kind of person. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven up my street, eyeballed my lawn, thought “the grass needs watered“, then rushed inside to check email, prepare dinner, or whatever, and left my grass to suffer.
The poke-it lawn watering test is more accurate, more forgiving, and is a better tool for lawn water management. It’s useful after watering, as well as before, and you don’t need to know whether it has rained recently to use it. Of course you do actually need to walk as far as your lawn to do it, so it requires being just a bit more disciplined. Either method works, as long as you do it regularly. Your choice!
Have you tried either of these methods for knowing when your grass needs watered? What other lawn care questions can I help with?
Kid tip: playing in sprinklers is one of the joys of summer. It can take upto 3 hours of slow watering to hydrate your lawn down to 6″ – plenty of time for playing!
