This Universal Lawn Care Tip covers correct watering techniques and how watering correctly is a crucial element to the fitness of our lawn, we’ll look at watering to gain the best benefit and see how getting it wrong can cause an infestation of disease.

Methods and watering times change depending on lawn varieties climates and regions, so specific we’re going to stay with our universal lawn care truths that are appropriate to all lawn varieties and in all regions of the Earth. Fortunately, there are many set truths that have a bearing on all gardens that just need minor adjustments depending on circumstances.

1 ) Water infrequently and deeply – the key here is to push a deep root system that may resist hot weather, and has water easily available to the roots below the evaporation level in the soil. Generally two times a week for 20-30 mins is adequate in hotter weather for warm season varieties like Bermuda (couch) and St. Augustine (buffalo), and three times per week for cool season bunching grasses like Fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass.

2 ) Water in the morning – watering in the morning gives water to our gardens at exactly the single time the lawn can take water into it’s system, during the day! The vascular system of gardens circulates water and nutrients throughout the grass plant, the vascular system gets power from daylight – therefore lawns can’t absorb water at night. Whenever gardens are watered at night, a huge quantity of that water is drained away deep into to the soil and water table and wasted, the lawn now requires more water to remain healthy, and we’ve just wasted one of our most valuable resources.

Night time watering also promotes fungal sicknesses on lawns when water is left sitting on the grass leaf overnight, the difficulty is compounded in hotter regions when hotter nights create a warm clammy environment on the turf which promote fungal growth and disease.

3) Never water daily – daily watering and over-watering promote a shallow root system which can simply kill a lawn in hotter weather, and a lawn which is water logged from lack of oxygen in the soil. Lawns like these are fragile and simply damaged from wear and tear.

4) Adjust watering as needed – Keep an eye on watering times and adjust as necessary depending on temperature and rainfall. We want to adjust to give enough water, and adjust not to give too much, both extremes are similarly damaging to turf.

5) Wetting Agents – these are a superb addition to every lawn and garden across the globe today. Wetting Agents break down the waxy coating on grains of soil like dishwashing liquid breaks down grease from a frying pan, the result’s a more even distribution of water throughout the soil profile, decrease in dry patches that can sometimes occur in gardens, and most significantly is the capability of the grass to keep hold of water for longer periods of time, which permits for much more water being available to the grass, providing proofing against heat stress and a decrease in the amount of water needed for a healthy lawn.

Our next Universal Lawn Care Tip debates Lawn Manure , which talks about why we want to use fertilizers, how we should use them and the way to select the right one for our lawn and our region.