Summers have so much heat and strong winds, both of which can steal so much of your lawn water and cause the death of your grass. It therefore means that, for your lawn grass to survive the harsh weather, you must water it often.
On the flip side, the survival of your lawn turf does not lie in just watering the lawn; but in watering it the right way. It is unfortune that, most people do not know how to do it properly.
For example, most people concentrate on watering the lawn too much, forgetting that too much water is equally as harmful as dehydration. Underwatering or overwatering are the reasons why your grass is turning yellow during summer.
The proper watering of lawn grass goes beyond setting up your sprinkler and turning on the water. Knowing how to properly water your lawn is not an easy task as it sounds. Let’s get to proper watering schedule of your lawn during summer.
How often to Water Lawn in Summer
The following watering techniques will give you a green lush grass during a mild summer
1. Water it three times a week
Watering your lawn often is critical to the healthy growth of the grass. A moderately soaked soil encourages the grass root system to penetrate deep, and this means the grass will have a solid foundation to withstand the heat of summer.
If your lawn has sandy soil, you should water your lawn for a maximum of three times per week. And if you have clay soil on your lawn, then you can water it twice per week, maximum.
You should also do the watering for a maximum of 30 minutes in one session. The amount of time for which to water your lawn in one session may vary a little, depending on the flow rate of your sprinkler.
But even as you do that, be careful not to overwater your lawn since this blocks air from reaching the grass, thus causing its death.
2. Water it in the morning
The best time to water your lawn in hot weather is early in the morning; before 10 am. At this time, the weather is cooler and calmer, something that allows the grass to absorb as much water as possible.
Beyond 10 am, the weather is hot and windy, and these two will steal most of the water from the soil. They will also take lots of water from the sprinkler, thus preventing it from reaching the grass in the first place.
Watering your lawn beyond 6 pm makes the ground so wet and this leaves it susceptible to attack by fungus and mold growth, both of which kill grass the same way dehydration does.
3. Use pulsating instead of the oscillating sprinkler
There are many varieties of pulsating and oscillating sprinklers. Some pulsating sprinklers have a solid base to allow them to sit low and close to the ground. These help prevent water loss through the moderate winds blowing in the early mornings.
With this type of sprinkler, you can even water your lawn any time of the day because you can be sure that no water will be lost. After all, you can be guaranteed that your lawn is soaked enough and not too much.
Oscillating sprinklers, on the other hand, are high and lack a solid base to run from. Besides, it will lose lots of water, especially if you tried watering in the middle of the day.
4. Be gentle on new grass
The depth of soaking your lawn soil and the amount of time to do your watering depends on the age of your grass. For established lawn grass, always keep the extent of soaking to 6 inches deep. This allows the grassroots to go deep and wide, for maximum absorption of nutrients.
You can even run the sprinkler for a continuous 30 minutes when dealing with fully grown grass. But for new short grass on the hand, ensure to moisten the soil instead of soaking it.
So much water from a sprinkler with a higher rate of flow could end up uprooting the grass even before it gets time to establish a strong foundation in the soil.
5. Give the water time to soak gently
Some places have very hard soil, especially in the urban settlements where the topsoil was removed for development. Watering lawns continuously in such areas does not allow water to fully soak into the soil.
At the end of the day, you might be left with very hard soil where grassroots cannot penetrate deep and wide enough for proper growth.
Instead of doing that, consider watering your lawn in sessions of 30 minutes to allow water seep deep enough into the soil. This will soften the soil and support the enhanced root development of your grass.
6. Soak the soil 6 inches deep
Well watered soil should be soaked 6 inches deep; more or less of that is not ideal for proper growth of lawn grass. And because you cannot just tell the depth of 6 inches by eyes, there are tests to determine that.
Take a 6-inch screwdriver and insert it into the soaked soil. Then remove it and make your observation.
Alternatively; you can take a stick and insert into the soil, remove and measure 6 inches depth by the use of a ruler or tape measure. The other method involves inserting the tip of your shovel into the soaked ground and digging 6 inches deep.
You can bypass all this hassle of measurements and use a formula to determine the depth of the soaked ground. Multiply the square footage of your lawn by 62 gallons of water then divide the answer by the rate of flow of your sprinkler.
How Long to Water Lawn in Summer
The type of soil on which your lawn sits plays a critical role in determining how often you should water the grass turf. For hard and dry sandy soils, you should water your lawn for a maximum of 3 times per week. And when you do this, remember that each session should last for 30 minutes.
If the lawn has clay soils, you can water the lawn twice per week, maximum, with each session lasting for about 15 minutes. You can adjust the period of each session depending on the rate of flow of your sprinkler.
Does watering grass in the sun burn it?
Watering your grass in the sun does not necessarily burn it. Doing that only reduces the chances of the grass absorbing enough water for its survival.
This is because in such weather, evaporation rate is high, which takes away most of the water causing dehydration and eventual death of the grass. It is important to note that heat does not kill grass; the dehydration caused by the evaporation due to intense heat does.