The Guide on How to Water Your Lawn | Lawn Watering Tips

I enjoy monitoring my lawn's water needs and I remember my own learning curve as I slowly began to understand the gray areas. Literally, parts of my Zoysia lawn turn gray when it's going dry! 

Join me as we unpack this and other nuances of how and when to efficiently water lawns.

When to Water Your Lawn

1. Water in the Morning

There are several advantages to irrigating in the morning, however some confusion surrounds when exactly is the morning.

In context of watering lawns and gardens, the morning is just before sunrise - in the summer that's around 5:30 AM. Yes, 1:00 AM is technically the morning but then water sits on leaves in the dark for several hours before evaporation. The goal of watering in the morning is to avoid water sitting on leaves for very long and watering at 1 AM negates that.

Complete watering around 10:00 AM, to coincide with when dew naturally evaporates. If you cannot complete all zones in one day, separate some into another day.

Absolutely avoid watering in the late afternoon or evenings because water will sit on the leaves all night.

Morning Watering Reduces Diseases

Why the fuss about water on leaves? Isn't this natural?

The fuss is because water loitering on grass blades increases fungal activity, such as the "patch" diseases, the dreaded large patch and brown patch. Yes, evening rainfall is natural and unavoidable if climates prone to afternoon storms, but as gardeners and lawn whisperers, it's in our power to avoid irrigating at that time and thereby augmenting any issues.

Morning Watering Reduces Water Loss

Watering in the morning reduces water loss from displacement by wind and rapid evaporation from direct sunlight.

• Winds are usually still in the mornings, before the sun heats the earth and generates breezes. By watering when the winds are calmer, less of your irrigation water will be blown away from your lawn.
• Natural summer heat and the heat from direct sunlight will cause your irrigation water to evaporate before it reaches the ground.

Irrigating in the morning conserves this precious natural resource and saves you money, but you've probably noticed it is a bit of a dance around timing. You want to water at a time when the water will not remain on the leaves too long, while giving the water enough time to percolate into the root zone before evaporating. Thus, summertime watering just before sunrise around 5:30 AM with completion around 10:00 AM is the sweet spot!

2. Water When a Lawn has Drought Stress

Consider spot watering localized dry spots instead of the entire lawn.

I struggle with a "hot spot" in my Zoysia lawn due to compaction during new home construction. It turns gray and the leaves start rolling before the typical signs of drought stress, that being turning brown and rolling even more (they roll or curl along the sides in a tube-like fashion, rather than curling or wilting from the top down like the leaves of other plants). If I notice that gray color developing, I provide supplemental watering just to that area.

3. Irrigate According to Municipal Water Restrictions

Please be a good citizen and follow your city ordinances about watering schedules. They usually specify watering only in the mornings and on certain days, depending on your address. Typically the schedules are listed on municipality water websites.

How Much to Water Your Lawn

As a general rule, keeping your lawn healthy requires 1 inch of water weekly, including rainfall. 

Average Lawn Water Requirements in Summer

What if it Rains? Your goal is to supplement rainfall shortages. We recommend not using fixed timer irrigation settings - in other words, monitor rainfall and turn your irrigation off according to how many inches are in the rain gauge. 

Using irrigation water to fill the gaps between rainfalls is critical to a healthy, attractive lawn. TifTuf Bermuda is the only exception, irrigation is not necessary to maintain an attractive lawn!

If one or more inches of rainfall occur in a week, additional irrigation is not necessary. Example: if 1/2 inch of rain occurs within a growing week, apply 1/2 inch by irrigation.

Coupling your use of sprinkler water with feedback from a rain gauge will result in a healthier and attractive lawn and lower water bills.

How to Use a Rain Gauge: Using a rain gauge to guide how many inches of supplemental water to provide is another way to conserve this natural resource and keep water bills lower. To determine how much water you are applying, place a rain gauge midway between the sprinkler and the end of the coverage and check water depth in the gauge after a planned length of time (approximately 1/2 hour), then calculate the total time needed to apply 1/2 inch of water at a time.

Avoid Runoff: Water a long as you can so the water percolates deeply into the soil while avoiding runoff (runoff is wasteful - you can save money and conserve resources by avoiding water runoff). 

Avoid irrigating so much that water runs off the lawn surface and on to walks and roads.

If there is runoff, pause your irrigation to allow the water to seep into the soil.

Avoid Overwatering: Do not waste water by over watering; avoid standing water for any period of time. Overwatering lawns can cause them to languish and die, too.

Even More Nuanced Watering Tips!

• Clay soils require less water and less frequent waterings than sandier soils. Yet, compacted clay is a significant challenge and will require more watering than you expect (a particular problem in new construction).

• Less water is required during cloudy weeks of summer when it's also slightly less hot out; same thing during the shoulder seasons of spring and fall. During these times, turn your irrigation on and off, according to your local shifts in weather.

• You many need to water areas on mounds and berms more often than lower areas.
• You many need to water more often near buildings or concrete driveways and sidewalks more often because reflected heat from them will dry the turf faster.
• Areas shaded by trees may require more water to support both trees and turf grasses.
  

How to Water Lawns - Devices

There are two basic kinds of sprinkler systems:

1. Automatic Lawn Irrigation Systems (underground): The most efficient method of irrigating a lawn is through an underground lawn sprinkler system. It is a good investment in your lawn as well as the value of your home, plus it will make your life easier because you won't need to drag hoses around. A professionally installed system should be designed for complete and even distribution across your lawn, have battery back-up for timers, and a rain sensor to stop the system when rain occurs.
2. Portable Hose-end Sprinklers (above ground): Basically, this system is just your spigot, hose, sprinkler, and you. This arrangement is much less expensive than underground systems, but requires more of your labor by moving the sprinkler around the lawn. If you don't have a big lawn and like to be outside, this is a practical choice. Many sprinklers are available with different spray patterns, from oscillating, rotating, to stationary. We recommend getting spigot timers so you can at least automate the sprinkler turning on at 5:30 AM.

Automatic Lawn Irrigation - Pop-up sprinklers installed before sod is laid.

Even More Watering Tips

How to Water When Installing Sod:

• Water new sod as you lay it. Read further about Watering Sod During Installation. 

Watering Tips for Brand New Lawns:

• Water enough to keep it wet like a sponge until it roots in. Refer to our complete tips on Watering Brand New Sod. 

What to do When There's a Drought:

• Consider letting the lawn go dormant in drought conditions. Warm season lawns like Bermuda, Zoysia, and Centipede will regenerate once water is more available. It hard to believe, but when you see it happen you will marvel at their toughness!
• Click here to read our 11 horticultural tips on How to Ensure Your Lawn Survives Drought.
• Consider switching to the drought tolerant TifTuf Bermuda because it will stay green during significant droughts.

Landscaping Hacks:

• Select drought tolerant TifTuf Bermuda so you always have a green lawn, even in droughts.
• Read our 10 Reasons Why Sod is the Best at Controlling Erosion.

Water & Mowing - What to Do:

• Avoid scalping your lawn.
• Always use a sharp blade - sharp blades make clean cuts, thus reducing water loss.
• In drought conditions, mow at a higher cutting height with a sharp blade. Look up the mowing height for your type of lawn in our Lawn Maintenance Guides.
• Use robotic lawn mowers for a cleaner cut, thus less water loss and stress on your lawn.

Water & Fertilizing - What to Do:

• Fertilize your lawn at proper rate for your location and turf selection, to prevent run-off of excess fertilizer. Look up fertilizer rates for your type of lawn in our Lawn Maintenance Guides.
• Aerate heavy soils to promote better fertilizer and water penetration to lawn roots.