How Often Should I Water My Lawn?
Whether you have a lawn irrigation system or a garden hose and sprinklers, regular irrigation is key to keeping your grass living and thriving.Â
If your turf becomes too dry, it will die; it’s that simple.
So, how often should you water? We’re glad you asked.
The general rule of thumb is to add supplemental water to your turf for a total of one inch per week for a lush, beautiful lawn. This should be a combination of rainfall and/or irrigation.
Watering Your Lawn With a Sprinkler
The first time you use your sprinkler, set out a dish in the lawn to measure how much you’ve watered and set a timer to know how long it takes to reach one inch. These days, you can purchase a programmable hose end or faucet water timer, so you can then set it accordingly for the future.
There are many types of sprinklers on the market; select one that best suits your application needs. Most homeowners prefer an oscillating one.
Regardless of the type of sprinkler you select and, depending on the size of your yard, you may need several sprinklers or need to move the sprinkler in order to evenly water each section of the lawn.
Watering Your Lawn With an Irrigation System
At the beginning of the watering season (spring in the Midwest), check the heads and pipes for any breakage from the winter.
- Begin by turning on the system and letting the sprinklers run for two or three minutes per station, checking that all sprinklers are releasing water with strong pressure and are rotating correctly. If any sprinkles don’t appear to be working, there may be a wiring issue, leak, or break in the line.
- If anything appears to be broken, get a replacement part from a big box store or hardware store, making sure that you buy the correct part for the brand of irrigation system you have. While you can find these parts in stores or online, pay attention to the brand, model, and riser height. There are numerous variations within the make and models which can make it overwhelming. This is one benefit of using a landscape company, like Weller Brothers, to maintain your irrigation system.
- Once you’ve confirmed that your irrigation system is working properly, adjust how long it needs to run depending on whether it’s a wet or dry season. If you don’t know how long to program it for, you can do roughly 15 minutes on a spray nozzle and 30 minutes on a rotor.
In Sioux Falls, watering days are based on odd/even days of the last number of your house number. The last digit of your house number determines if you are on an odd/even watering schedule. Per city regulation, don’t water between noon and 5 p.m. — the hottest part of the day.
Check Your Rotors’ Rain Curtain
Before launching your irrigation system for the season, you should check the rain curtain on your rotors. A rain curtain refers to the uniform, rotating curtain of water emitted from the rotor head.Â
If there is no rain curtain, use an adjustment tool appropriate for the brand of your system and manually adjust the rotor body until you achieve a rain curtain from the rotor head. If you have a huge lawn, this could take hours, but once they are adjusted, they should remain so for the future.
The largest culprit of ill-adjusted rotors will be the heads along the driveway and sidewalks, which may have been hit by snow removal equipment during the previous months.
Other Common Issues
With all of the tiny moving pieces to an irrigation system, there are several other potential issues that should be checked at the beginning of the watering season.
This includes checking the sprays, which are the types of irrigation heads that are commonly placed near sidewalks and driveways, as opposed to the rotors which are on the open lawn.
If sprays are not emitting water, the nozzle or the screen may be plugged. You can remove the obstruction from the nozzle with a paper clip. As for the screen, you can raise it or just replace it.
Also, wiper seals can become worn out on both spray and rotor heads. If the system is running and water is gushing out around the bottom of the cap or out around the riser, the seal likely needs to be replaced. Be sure to match the make and models of the head for the cap replacement — they are not universal.Â
How Much Is Too Much Water?
With all of the tiny moving pieces to an irrigation system, there are several other potential issues that should be checked at the beginning of the watering season.
This includes checking the sprays, which are the types of irrigation heads that are commonly placed near sidewalks and driveways, as opposed to the rotors which are on the open lawn.
If sprays are not emitting water, the nozzle or the screen may be plugged. You can remove the obstruction from the nozzle with a paper clip. As for the screen, you can raise it or just replace it.
Also, wiper seals can become worn out on both spray and rotor heads. If the system is running and water is gushing out around the bottom of the cap or out around the riser, the seal likely needs to be replaced. Be sure to match the make and models of the head for the cap replacement — they are not universal.Â
Too Much Work?
Many people are simply too busy to keep up with their lawn care. Consequently, their turf never lives up to its full, beautiful potential.
That’s why we are here! Weller Brothers Landscaping provides irrigation service, startup, and blowout services for residential and commercial properties in Sioux Falls, SD, and Rochester, MN.