In order to keep a healthy and visually pleasing lawn, you should regularly water it to ensure that it is receiving all the moisture it needs, especially in seasons where there may be less than adequate rainfall.
It is important that you do not mistake watering your lawn for feeding it as these are two completely different things and, as such, it is important to remember that watering simply helps it maintain a level of moisture whereas feeding helps it to extract the relevant nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium from the soil.
Over Watering
It is important to remember that lawns do not need to be watered everyday. This is especially important if there has been a significant amount of rainfall during a particular period of time. Over watering can lead to a weak root system, which can in turn lead to a host of problems with disease and an inability in fighting against pests.
Factors to Consider
In extremely hot periods you should try to water your lawn every day, but this should be done either early in the morning or in the early evening when there is less evaporation and your lawn can take on most of the water. It is best not to water your lawn last thing at night as this can lead to the grass being overly wet during the night, which in turn can increase the chances of disease. A large number of fungi to be found in the garden, such as toadstools, require damp conditions when the air borne spores come to rest on the ground.
Again in windy conditions it is best not to water your lawn as grass dries out quicker under the influence of wind that it will if it is a sunny day.
Soil type is another factor when it comes to watering your garden. Some soil types will hold water for long periods of time whilst others will take on water and soak it up quickly thus drying out and demanding more water.
One of the things you should do before watering your lawn is to aerate it. Aerating your lawn ensures that there are sufficient number of holes in the lawn for the water to sink in and therefore reach the root system.
If a lawn has too much surface lying water it can starve the grass roots of oxygen and cause a problem known as leaf rolling. This – as the name suggests – is a condition where the blades of grass roll over onto themselves as they suffer the effects of oxygen starvation and subsequently die leaving patches of grass that may need re-seeding or replacing altogether. A more common name for this condition would be waterlogging and it is something that a lot of first time gardeners have fallen foul of.
The key is not to over water your garden. Water your garden for long intervals in conditions conducive to watering such as we have already mentioned – watering early morning or early evening when the temperature is such that it will not evaporate the water or alternatively leave the water to lie and cause other problems.
It is best to water in this way rather than water the lawn in short sporadic bursts as this will leave the lawn with a shortage of water to thrive on and will cause you – as the gardener to spend more time than is necessary carrying out this task.