Watering The Lawn

Watering The Lawn: How Often To Water The Lawn

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Also, the correct watering of the lawn needs to be learned. We will tell you whether it is better to water your green in the morning or in the evening, how much you should water and what you should pay special attention to when watering new lawns.

For many people, a healthy, green lawn is an absolute must in the garden. But especially in summer, it is often not so easy to keep the lawn fresh and vital: Dryness and heat are hard on the lawn and the grass becomes withered and brown. The best way to prevent a withered, unsightly lawn is to water the lawn. This article explains what you need to consider and how to water a lawn properly.

When Should You Water Your Lawn?

When the top layer of soil has dried out, it is advisable to water the lawn. This happens mainly in summer, but also in spring or fall, the soil can sometimes need extra moisture. And the time of day is also crucial: in the morning and evening, watering the lawn is most sensible, as many gardeners know.

Watering The Lawn In Spring

In spring the new growing season for the lawn begins. This season is therefore particularly important for lawn care, as it is here that the foundation stone for a vital lawn is laid. While raking, mowing, and fertilizing the lawn is part of the spring lawn care for most people, many are unsure about watering the lawn. In fact, watering the lawn in spring is often unnecessary because the grass is sufficiently supplied with moisture from rainfall.

However, if the spring is particularly warm or there are long dry periods, you should water the lawn additionally. Even with very sandy soils, it may be necessary to water the lawn already in spring. As soon as the lawn gets a grayish shimmer or shows signs of wilting, you should water the lawn in spring as well.

For the lawn to stay green, it needs sufficient irrigation

Watering The Lawn In Summer

Anyone who values a green carpet in summer should pay particular attention to watering the lawn properly. In fact, watering the lawn in summer is essential to keep the grass vital. The reason: On average, four liters of water evaporate per square meter of lawn per summer day. At the same time, the roots of the grasses only penetrate about 15 centimeters deep into the groundwater reserves in the lower layers of the earth are therefore hardly usable for them. Coupled with the heat and dryness of summer, this combination ensures that a lawn needs the right amount of moisture to stay green in summer.

But many gardeners ask themselves the question: should the lawn really be watered in the sun or heat? The fear behind this is that the lawn could suffer burns from the “magnifying glass effect” of the water drops. In fact, it is not recommended to water the lawn when the sun is shining – but this recommendation is not based on the magnifying glass effect, because this is a myth that has long been refuted.

In summer you should use the morning or evening for blasting

Rather, what speaks against watering in heat and sunshine is reduced efficiency and the desire to save water. If you were watering the lawn at noon, a large portion of the water would evaporate, so more water is needed to water the lawn sufficiently. Therefore, when asked when to water the lawn, the answer to the question of when to water the lawn is in the summer, the best times are early morning or late evening because it is coolest at these times.

Tip: In order to further increase the lawn’s tolerance to drought during the summer, it is recommended to prepare the lawn with an autumn lawn fertilizer already in the fall. A sufficient supply of potassium optimizes the grasses’ water uptake while minimizing water evaporation – this makes the lawn much more heat-tolerant.

Water The Lawn In Autumn And Winter

Many people think that the lawn does not need to be watered after the summer. Unfortunately, this is a misconception: in fact, especially in the early autumn months, the lawn continues to depend on a supply of moisture, as there are often long periods of drought.

In the further course of autumn, it is only necessary to water the lawn if the dryness persists. In winter this is normally not necessary. However, if there are dry periods in winter and permanent temperatures above 5°C, it is worth checking the soil. If it is very dry, the lawn can be watered in winter in exceptional cases.

The early morning is the perfect time to water the lawn

Should the lawn be watered in the morning or evening?

Both times are perfectly suitable for adding water to the lawn because, in contrast to noon, the temperatures and thus the evaporation of water is much lower in the morning and evening. Nevertheless, watering the lawn in the morning instead of in the evening has some advantages:

  1. For one thing, the temperatures are lower in the early morning.
  2. For this reason, the smallest amount of water evaporates in the morning and the lawn is watered more efficiently and with less water consumption.

It is also not ideal if the lawn is moistened in the evening and does not dry off completely for hours: Fungal infestation is then somewhat more likely.

Watering the lawn properly: This is how you do it when watering

Water hose, lawn sprinkler, or automatic irrigation: There are now many different methods of watering the lawn. Which one you choose depends not only on the size of your garden but also on your personal preferences. But even if the methods differ from each other, there are still some things to consider if you want to water your lawn properly.

For example, the lawn needs special attention during certain phases of its life, for example when sowing or after fertilizing, when it comes to the administration of water. But also the frequency and amount of water should be adjusted if you want to water the lawn properly.

Watering new lawns

When you lay out a new lawn, you can’t wait until the first green stems appear. But for the new lawn to soon turn into a green carpet, it needs care above all else. Once the grass seeds have been distributed, worked in, and pressed on the prepared ground, the work is not finished – in the following days, the freshly sown lawn must be watered. To ensure even wetting, it is recommended to use a lawn sprinkler to allow the lawn seeds to cool down.

In dry weather, the new lawn should be watered about four times a day for about ten minutes. A good lawn soil such as peat-reduced Plantura Organic Lawn Soil offers the seeds some additional protection against rapid drying out, as it stores water better. However, even when it is used, sufficient irrigation is essential for successful seeding.

But how long do you have to water the lawn after sowing? This depends greatly on the weather and the seeds: until germination, the freshly sown lawn should be watered four times a day for about ten minutes. The germination of the lawn seeds takes one to three weeks – after this time you slowly start to extend the watering intervals. The new time interval for watering the lawn should be about 24 to 48 hours in dry weather. After eight to twelve weeks, a dense lawn should have formed.

It is also important when laying turf rolls to ensure sufficient watering directly. With about 10 to 15 liters of water per square meter, the turf should be supplied with water after laying it, to prevent the lawn from drying out. In case of larger lawns or very hot weather, it is even advisable to water contiguous parts of the lawn before laying the rest of the turf.

After sowing, the new lawn must be watered

The new lawn should also be watered for the next two weeks so that it can take root in the subsoil as quickly as possible. We recommend daily watering with about 10 to 15 liters of water per square meter.

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Tip: How do you now find out how much water per square meter was distributed? The easiest way is to set up a rain gauge and simply read off the quantity on its scale.

Watering the lawn after fertilizing

To keep the lawn healthy and growing, many gardeners like to use a lawn fertilizer such as Plantura Organic Lawn Fertilizer. Using our primarily organic fertilizer, we can easily explain why watering after fertilizing is important: as little as 20 to 30 minutes of irrigation is enough to supply the microorganisms in the soil with sufficient vital water.

Because only with their help can the fertilizer be converted. In this way, the nutrients contained in the fertilizer become available to the plants, and the soil is improved. If one refrains from watering the lawn after fertilizing, the microorganisms can only convert the fertilizer slowly.

In case of doubt, the effect of the fertilizer is thus only delayed – after fertilizing and during the entire vegetation period, you should therefore ensure that the soil is sufficiently moist, in case of doubt, by watering the lawn.

A rain gauge can provide information about the amount of irrigation water

Even with mineral lawn fertilizers, sufficient watering is extremely important after distribution. Only in this way can the salts that make up the mineral fertilizer dissolve and penetrate into the soil, where they are absorbed by the plants. If the lawn is watered insufficiently or not at all after fertilizing, highly concentrated fertilizer solutions are produced, which can lead to a strong over-fertilization of the lawn – so strong that the grass is killed.

Apart from that, there is always the danger that children or animals find the colorful mineral fertilizer pellets all too interesting, which can be quite harmful to health.

How much should you water your lawn?

Between 10 and 20 liters of water per square meter should be distributed during watering to wet the ground about 15 centimeters deep. How much one should water one’s own lawn depends largely on the type of soil on the property. Sandy soil, for example, is penetrated more quickly by water, so that 10 to 15 liters of water may be enough to wet the soil.The first 15 centimeters of the floor must be moist

However, sandy soil is not very good at retaining water, so it dries out more quickly and must therefore be blasted more often, about three times a week. Heavy clay and loamy soils, on the other hand, need up to 20 liters of water to be moistened up to 15 centimeters deep. In return, they have a better water storage capacity – so it may be sufficient to water the lawn only once a week, even in hot dry periods.

Tip: If the lawn is watered with too little water, the water only penetrates a few centimeters into the soil and the roots are not completely moistened. In the worst case, this can lead to the lawn preferring to form roots just below the soil surface instead of deeper into the soil. This makes the lawn even more susceptible to drought. Therefore, it is advisable not to water the lawn a little every day, but rather on a few days, but extensively.

There are various methods to determine whether the amount of water used when watering the lawn is correct. The safest method is to cut a piece of the lawn after watering and measure with a folding rule to see how deep the water has penetrated the soil.

If the zone extends down to 15 centimeters, the amount of water was sufficient – otherwise, another blasting should be carried out. After the measurement, the cut-off piece of grass can be put back in place and pressed on. If this method is too radical for you, you can also stick to the above-mentioned guidelines. To check whether the watering quantity is correct, either a flow meter should be installed at the water connection or a rain gauge should be placed on the piece of grass to read the water quantity.

Summary: How much should the lawn be watered?

  • The soil should be moistened to a depth of 15 cm.
  • Rarely large amounts of water rather than regularly little water.
  • Sandy soil: 10 – 15 liters per m2 every 3 to 4 days.
  • Loamy soil: 15 – 20 liters per m2 every 5 to 7 days.
  • Spade test shows whether the water has penetrated deep enough.
  • Flow meters or rain gauges help to dose the irrigation correctly.

A rain gauge can provide information about the amount of irrigation water

Tip: Many sprinklers do not provide even watering – especially marginal areas often get much less water than areas near the sprinkler. To compensate for this, it is advisable to change the sprinkler regularly so that peripheral areas are also sufficiently supplied. Alternatively, areas that are less well supplied by the sprinkler can also be watered by hand, for example with a garden hose.

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