Proper nutrients, mowing and watering are all very essential to a beautiful and healthy lawn. Homeowners usually ignore the routine of watering believing that rainfall is enough. Lawns are basically very resilient and a properly cared-for and an established lawn can survive weeks or even months without going dormant. In the absence of rainfall, however, supplemental watering may be needed.

How to Properly Water Your Lawn

Water is vital to all life forms – too much water and you drown, too little of it and you die. This also goes for your lawns. An established and healthy lawn requires about one inch of water every single week. This little amount of water will just moisten the top six to eight inches of the soil that is the depth of an established root system. In order to know how long it could take you to deliver one inch of water to the lawn, there are actually 2 tests you can perform.

Screwdriver Test

After watering your lawn, you must simply be able to stab the soil with the use of a screwdriver about six inches in depth. If it does not go into it in an easy manner, you still need to water and repeat the test when you have to.

Tuna Can Test

Get an empty can, specifically a tuna can in your lawn. Time how long it would take to fill up the tuna can. As a matter of fact, this is about one inch of water. It also tells you the time you need to water your lawn.

These tests do best with well-cultivated and healthy soil. A healthy soil gives outstanding drainage while giving the appropriate amount of water at the root area, where grasses need it most. Poor or unhealthy soil with not insufficient drainage will just cause the soil of your lawn to become waterlogged while the soil missing organic matter can cause water to leave soil, making the soil dry.

During hot weather condition, warm-season grasses such as centipede, St. Augustine, Zoysia and Bermuda grasses may require as much as two inches of water. During times of a very hot months, these warm-grasses may become dormant. Just consider dormancy as a kind of hibernation process – this happens because they need to for their survival. Often, people think that the grasses have already died however, when enough water and rainfall returns, the grass will continue to grow and given this happens in the warmer seasons. Newly sodded lawns need a little more attention and more water. To know more information about this method, contact professional lawn care Ponte Vedra FL.

When to Water

A lawn does not require a lot of water. It’s basically patterned to capture rainfall and use it effectively. It is highly suggested to wait until the grasses dull in color or start to wilt before watering. In addition to that, you may also inspect your lawn by stepping on it. If footprints do not disappear fast, it is because the grass blades do not have enough moisture to spring back.