Since my last post, I don’t believe it has rained much, if at all, and the temps continue to rise.  Our lawns are going dormant – turning a yellowish-brown, and some trees are dropping their inner leaves in an effort to conserve their dwindling supply of water and nutrients.  With no real rain on the horizon, we may need to intervene.  Just like everything else in landscaping, there’s a right way and a wrong way to water.

When it comes to your lawn, you must first make a very important decision before you drag out the sprinkler.  You either need to water your lawn consistently as needed or let it go dormant as conditions turn warm and dry.  Do not rotate back and forth between the two.  For example, don’t let the grass turn totally brown then apply enough water to green it up only to let it go dormant again.  Choose a path and stick with it.

You should try to water your lawn early in the day when it is normally wet from dew.  Avoid midday due to heat and evaporation and night due to the increased chance of disease.

Water your lawns thoroughly but infrequently, unless your lawn is newly seeded/sodded.  Frequent watering promotes shallower root systems and weeds.  Lawn sprinklers are definitely the most common for watering our lawns; however, much of the water is lost to evaporation or drift.  If employing this method, be sure to move the sprinkler around to provide consistent watering throughout the lawn.

When watering plantings, It’s best, just like your lawns,  to water in the early morning while the temps are still relatively low.  In doing so, you are arming your plants with a good supply of water to face the heat of the day.  Additionally, winds seem to be calmer in the morning leading to less evaporation.  If early morning does not work for you, very late afternoon is an option as well; however, it’s important that the leaves have time to dry before nightfall.  If possible, employ the assistance of a soaker hose, which will not wet the leaves, giving you a later window in which to water.

For established plantings, deep, infrequent watering is recommended.  Generally speaking, an inch of water per week should suffice.  This type of watering encourages deeper rooting, so ditch the sprinkler in this situation, which actually wastes a lot of water and does not achieve the same results.

As always, if you are unsure how and when to water, simply reach out to Sweeney’s.

“To a gardener, there is nothing more exasperating than a hose that just isn’t long enough”.

– Cecil Roberts

“The watering of a garden requires as much judgement as the seasoning of a soup.”

– Helena Rutherford Ely

Best wishes,

Kim Sweeney