My father always dreamed of having a lush, verdant lawn. He spent many a summer day plodding around the yard, obsessively watering and frowning at stubborn brown spots. To some, a well-manicured lawn is as much of a suburban status symbol as a fancy European car or a custom-built barbecue pit. To display a stubbly mass of dried-out grass is akin to having a rusty car on cinder blocks sitting in front of your house, and risks the neighbors’ muttering under their breaths as they diligently water and care for their own perfect expanses of turf.
Although people value the look and functionality of a beautiful lawn, few really take the time to learn how to cultivate and care for one. It’s about more than just turning on the sprinklers a few times a day; taking care of your grass depends on many factors, such as soil type, climate, humidity, precipitation, and grass type. No matter whether you live in Florida or Fargo, or whether you’re growing monkey grass or zoysia, follow these words of wisdom to ensure that your lawn will look and feel beautiful all summer long.
A Drop a Day
- To know how much to water your lawn, consider its location, soil type, and your area’s precipitation. Humid or rainy areas, places with thick, loamy soil, or partially shaded lawns need less water than areas with dry, sandy soil or lawns that sit in direct sunlight.
- Water in the early morning. In the afternoon, wind could disrupt your sprinkler’s distribution patterns, and the sun could cause water to be wasted by evaporating before it’s absorbed. Watering in the evening can leave the ground too damp overnight, leading to mildew, fungus, or disease problems.
- The root system will grow only as deep as you water, so try to give your lawn about one to two inches of water at a time, which will reach six to eight inches down. This amount of water should last the average lawn about a week. A thorough watering once per week is more effective than a modest watering once per day, because it allows more of the water to reach the roots, instead of evaporating.
