Think Twice Before Watering Your Lawn Every Day
Many people take pride in their beautifully well-kept lawns — and why not? Having a nice bright green lawn takes a lot of effort, time, and money. However, the one problem with lawn care is that there is some misinformation out there that can have disastrous results on your yard. One of the most prominent lawn care myths is that you should water your grass for around 15 minutes every day. Unfortunately watering your yard so often is not good for it. In fact, daily watering is actively harmful to your lawn because it can make your grass weaker and more prone to diseases.
According to the professional lawn care service Fairway Green, this happens because daily watering keeps the grass and topsoil of your yard wet, causing your lawn to become a great environment for fungal diseases to grow and spread. On top of this, too much water negatively impacts the quality of your soil by flushing out important nutrients and killing beneficial microbes. Because of this, many lawn care services see more damage from overwatering than underwatering — and the problem with overwatering is that it even changes the way your grass grows.
How overwatering affects roots
The worst thing about overwatering is that, if done over a long period, it can have major effects on your grass and even alter how its roots grow. In fact, overwatering a lawn can cause the grass to grow short roots that don't reach below the first few inches of soil. Grass does this when it is watered every day because the topsoil is always wet and it never needs to grow deep roots in search of a drink. Shallow-rooted grass is weaker in general and more sensitive to water shortages. Unfortunately, once grass grows this way, it will have a hard time surviving droughts or even going a few days without water.
This means that your lawn will struggle in the summer, especially in drier climates. It may also be much more susceptible to heat stress patches and will be very difficult to maintain. So, instead of watering your lawn once a day, or even once every other day, you should water it only a few times a week. This will help your lawn grow deep roots — making it stronger and healthier.
How to water your lawn the right way
To get healthy grass you should focus on quality over quantity. This means watering fewer times, with more water at once. In fact, many lawn care companies recommend watering two to three times a week and making sure that your lawn gets a weekly total of no more than one to two inches of water.
You should also avoid watering your lawn if you have recently gotten or are expecting to receive heavy rain. If you get heavy rain, always make sure to adjust your watering amount based on how much rainfall you receive. However, this is not necessary with light rain because the water likely won't seep into the soil — so, if it sprinkles on and off all day, you can continue your watering schedule as normal.
Another thing to keep in mind is the time of day you water your lawn. Some people believe that the best time to water is at night because that's when golf courses do their watering and they have beautiful grass. However, this is another misconception. The reason golf courses water at night is to avoid spraying unsuspecting early-morning golfers. Actually, the best time to water your lawn is in the early morning, just after dawn.