All plants need water, and grass is no different. Without water your lawn will not improve. You will only ever need to water turf if we have periods of very low rainfall, typically only a couple of times each year, if you have our AquaSmart™ Water Conserver Treatment. The principle is to water the lawn to avoid it losing its colour and becoming straw-like. If this does happen the turf has become dormant. It will eventually regain its colour. However, it will take a significant amount of water. A lawn sprinkler is the only effective way of watering turf.
Our AquaSmart™ Water Conserver Treatment massively reduces the water requirements of your lawn. The soil becomes hydrated more quickly and with significantly less rainfall and remains moist for longer. It means that typically you will need to water your lawn 90% less often.
Turf should be watered until it is thoroughly wetted to a depth of 15cm (6’’), without a soil sampling tool in can be quite hard to check this, a general guide is to apply 4cm of water over the entire lawn area if the soil has completely dried out. This can be reduced to 2cm, if your lawn has been treated with AquaSmart™ Water Conserver treatment. To work out how frequently the sprinkler needs to be moved, place a small straight sided container on part of the lawn that is covered by the sprinkler and time how long it takes for the container to fill up to 2cm/4cm. With an oscillating sprinkler, like the one in the picture, with average water pressure, it will normally take around 20 minutes to apply 2cm of water.
Consider installing a water butt that can be used to supply your lawn with some extra water.
Bath water can be recycled and used to water your lawn, any shampoo etc. in the water will not harm the lawn whatsoever.
Never water little and often; it will create weak, disease prone, shallow rooting turf. It can do more harm than good giving the turf a very light watering. The lightest watering should be a minimum of 10 litres per square metre, this equates to 1cm of water. To conserve water, rather than attempting to water the whole lawn, concentrate on the most drought stressed areas.
We have plenty of hints and tips for looking after your lawn During the summer
