Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Are you aware that a lot of people tend to overwater their lawns, thinking that more water means excellent results? This isn’t true because you may end up overwatering your lawn and wasting water too. Suppose you’re among the people who water their lawns every day. It’s time to stop doing that. Doing this leads to an alarming increase in water scarcity. Due to this fact, most countries have water restrictions set in place, and these restrictions are executed throughout the country. Your lawn doesn’t have to be watered every day, it doesn’t even need that much water, and you may end up drowning its roots.
If you water your lawn periodically, it will still glow in its beautiful bright green color. It is important to learn and follow actions that help you to care for your lawn. You can do this by studying and even spreading awareness. It may take up a few hours of your time to perform this task, but it is necessary to sacrifice your tight schedule if you want your lawn to look healthy and lush.
You need to provide proper care for your lawn and pay extra attention to it, especially if you reside in areas with water restrictions, as it can get quite tasking. Water restrictions are quite common in many countries. Most of them have a water curfew between 10 am- 4 pm where sprinklers are not to be turned on while taps are open. If you leave your sprinklers on within this time, you may be heavily fined. You can water and take care of your lawn in the early hours of the morning before 10 am and have an evening session with your lawn after 4 pm.
If you’re not sure how to manage this time and take care of your lawn? Please don’t fret. There are many ways you can maintain the freshness and healthy look of your lawn even when it has turned brittle or brown. You’d know more about how to take care of your lawn if you reside in an area with these water restrictions in this article.
TIPS FOR MAINTAINING YOUR LAWN IN A WATER RESTRICTED AREA
- First, you have to know these restrictions and which ones apply to you. Most of these water restrictions will still give you enough time to water your lawn and take care of it, keeping it healthy. The amount of water you can use depends on the level of drought in the area, but even a couple of hours of watering by hand every week is enough to help your grass survive
- Most people overwater their lawns all year. You need to study your lawn and do your research on the kind of grass that makes up your lawn and find out how much water your lawn requires to grow healthy. Some lawns need a lot of water, while some don’t need as much water as others. For example, a wintergreen couch grass requires 2-3 times maintenance time a week, but a buffalo grass may not need as much water
- You will need to be very tactical. With water restrictions, you can no longer leave the sprinkler on for hours, so you have to manage the time you have to do so. You are advised to water your lawn in the morning, around 6 am-8 am. When you water your lawn early in the morning, you will lose less water to evaporation. Inspect your lawn for dry patches with wilting grass or grass that’s starting to lose its color and focus on watering it before generously watering the whole field and fertilizing it when the restrictions have been lifted. You can also mow the grass of your lawn to a taller height than you usually do. Like around 50-75mm, This will help the grass’s blades act as a shade to the soil, which reduces evaporation and helps the soil remain moist
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TYPES OF LAWNS THAT NEED THE MOST ATTENTION AND CARE DURING WATER RESTRICTIONS
There are various kinds of lawns and grasses. Several of these grasses and lawns need to be taken care of in various ways, especially during severe conditions. Most regular grass lawns require being looked after with utmost care, especially during dry seasons. When in hot and dry seasons, the lawn grasses will most likely stop growing and possibly dry out or start to get brown. This becomes a big problem when the whole top 4inches of the topsoil dries out. This is a problem because it’s harder to battle with, especially in an area with water restrictions.
Standard garden lawns, especially the ones planted with grasses like fescues, may be able to withstand droughts quite well. On the other hand, beautification lawns may not be capable of withstanding severe conditions, especially during water restriction periods.
Suppose you have a lawn that has been planted with grasses like different kinds of bent fine grasses type. Then it is important for you to know that these grass types do not have as much resilience as a more coarse fescue lawn. Don’t worry, as long as you carefully take care of your lawn; then it would be able to recover quite fast in autumn as soon as the rain begins to fall.
Caring for your lawn in an area with water limitations may become harder and more important when it gets to summer because it will be hotter and eve dryer and require a lot of watering and special care.
TYPES OF LAWN GRASS
The major types of lawn grasses are the warm-season grasses and the cool cool-season grasses. Both kinds of grass survive in different ways and with various levels of temperature and water. Generally, cool-season grasses are more suitable for high humidity and cool weather because they tend to lose most of their water from their leaves. Due to this fact, they cannot cope in dry or hot weather and end up using about 50% more water a day than the common warm-season grasses.
If you are one of the people who reside in an area with water restrictions, it is advisable to grow your lawn with water-conserving grass types. Suppose you live in one these areas with water restrictions. In that case, you can investigate and find out more about certified water-conserving grass types from the TWCA’s (Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance) registry.
Each certified variety by TWCA has been thoroughly tested to ensure that they possess a high tolerance and can withstand drought. Many water-conserving lawn grass types can save up to 30% of water used to water your lawn without losing its appearance, texture, or quality.
HOW TO LOOK AFTER A LAWN IN AREAS WITH WATER LIMITATIONS
MOWING
It is a good idea to mow your lawn to a slighter higher length during the dry and hot weather. If you let the grass maintain a slightly higher height, it will keep it stronger and sturdy. It also allows for healthier and deeper root growth. It is also advisable to allow the cut grass remnants to lay on your lawn instead of clearing them off your lawn.
These loose clippings can act as a mulch to protect the ground underneath and slow down the evaporation process. However, ensure that the clippings aren’t too long; if not, they may suffocate the grass, causing damage.
WATERING
A regular sprinkler and hose set up may use up to 1000 liters of water an hour, equal to the same amount of water that a person will use up in a week. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the amount of water used to water your lawn to avoid putting a strain on your area’s water supplies. You will most likely be fully barred from making use of mains to water your lawn if you reside in an area with water restrictions. At best, you may need to fit in a water meter.
Minimizing the water you use for watering is a very important thing to do in areas that have water regulations. Don’t worry about your lawn. It will be able to pull through reduced watering as long as it is watered. Watering your lawn with little water and quite often may not be the best answer and might even cause worse problems for your lawn in the long run.
Shallow watering helps your grass plants’ roots spread in a shallow manner, causing them to be more open to damage from drought. When you water periodically and heavily, the water will be able to deeply penetrate the ground and encourage the roots to grow inwards into the soil layer that doesn’t dry out as easily as the top player.
LOOKING AFTER THE GRASS
When it’s hot and dry season, and you reside in an area with water restrictions, you have to do everything possible to reduce the stress on the grass. Due to its dryness, it may struggle to recover from whatever damage has been done. At this point, the best way you can look after your grass is to avoid walking on it as your feet may flatten and bruise the grass, pushing the soil into a harder mass that will make it difficult for roots to grow through. This helps to reduce the amount of repair and maintenance required to keep the grass healthy.
REHABILITATING A DAMAGED LAWN
If your lawn has suffered from a dry and hot summer, then you may need to repair the damage done as soon as possible.
Thankfully, the autumn season, right after the hot summer, is a good time to take advantage of and rehabilitate your lawn. This is the point where taking care of your lawn will have significant results and strengthen and increase its resistance to drought by the next hot summer. Ensure that you seed the patchy spots on your lawn with the use of a proper seed concoction. Try not to use weed feeds or killers at this particular time and keep them till springtime. By that time, your lawn would have recovered to an extent.
CONCLUSION
If you intend to plant a lawn in an area that operates with water restrictions, check for various grass that has been certified as water-conserving species to make things easier for you. If you have an existing lawn in one of these areas, just carefully maintain your lawn and reduce your water usage. You can also check;
A lawn mowing guide for beginners‘
Caring for your lawn during winter‘
