On a hot summer day when the sun’s beating down, it’s easy to feel sorry for your lawn.
Poor thing! It needs water! Lots of water! Water all day!
Before you turn your front yard into a replica of Niagara Falls, hold on, please.
Yes, watering your lawn in hot weather is really important. But how you do it is important, too.
Watering too much, too often, or at the wrong time of day can actually hurt your lawn.
How to water your grass in hot weather? Check out these tips:
1. First, Is Your Irrigation Controller Set for Summer?
First things first. Have you adjusted your irrigation controller for summer? Or is it still set for the cool, rainy days of Wisconsin and Minnesota spring?
Your controller needs you to tell it what time of day it should run and for how long. Make sure it’s set for the hotter, drier days of summer.
2. Don’t Water Every Day
It’s tempting, we know. But watering your lawn in hot weather doesn’t mean watering every day.
It sounds kind of mean, but you want your grass to have to search for water, sending its roots deeper into the soil. That encourages the roots to grow longer and deeper, which means your grass will be healthier.
So water deeper, longer, and not as often. This encourages deeper, stronger roots.
Shallow roots can’t handle the stress of a sudden drought or a summer lawn disease as well as deeper roots.
3. Watering Grass in Summer: Do It Early
Your lawn seems really thirsty on a hot summer afternoon, right? Shouldn’t you give it a nice long drink as the sun beats down?
Yikes, no. Watering on a hot summer afternoon is a really bad idea. The precious water will evaporate so quickly in that hot sun, it won’t even reach your lawn’s thirsty roots.
The time to water a lawn in hot weather is before sunrise. If sunrise is at 6 a.m., you should be done watering at 6.
In addition to evaporation, wind is a factor here, too. Wind typically picks up as the day goes on. You don’t want your precious water droplets to blow away.
4. Watering Your Lawn in Hot Weather: How Long?
You’re probably waiting for a big announcement here about exactly how often to water your grass in hot weather.
Sorry, it’s just not that easy. (Life is full of disappointments, right?) There’s no such thing as one magic summer lawn watering rule for everybody.
Your goal should be an inch of water per week, and that includes any rain that falls. But lots of different factors affect how long you should actually water your lawn to get that inch.
What type of soil do you have? Are you watering just lawn, or plants, too? Are you on a slope? In the shade, or full sun? What type of sprinkler heads do you have?
All these factors come into play when it comes to watering your lawn in the summer — or any time of year.
You might need to run your sprinkler for five minutes or 60 minutes, depending on your yard’s unique conditions, the weather, the time of year, and other factors.
If your soil is clay, you’ll water differently than if your soil is sand. You might water 40 minutes to an hour if you have sandy soil, but just 15 minutes if you have clay.
Your best bet? Hire a skilled and knowledgeable irrigation company to help you assess your particular Wisconsin or Minnesota lawn and create an irrigation plan perfect for its needs.
5. Don’t Be Fooled by Brown Spots
Yes, brown spots can mean your grass needs water. But not always. If it seems like you’ve been watering enough, and you see a brown spot in your lawn, it could also mean a lawn fungus. If you pour on extra water, thinking that spot is dry, you’ll actually make it worse.
6. Don’t Skip Summer Irrigation Maintenance
If you had your irrigation system’s spring tune-up, you might think everything's still fine, and you’re all set for summer lawn watering.
But summer is really hard on your sprinkler system. It can bring all sorts of potential problems. Sprinkler heads can get mowed off. Miscellaneous construction projects can damage underground systems without your knowledge. Plants have grown and are now blocking spray patterns.
Summer is also the perfect time for our skilled technicians to scrutinize your spray coverage when all your shrubs and flowers are in full growth.
So don’t skip that important summer irrigation system tune-up.
Watering Grass in Summer: Trust RainMaster in Eau Claire, WI & Minneapolis
Watering your lawn in hot weather doesn’t mean turning your backyard into a rainforest.
But you do need an irrigation system that won’t let you down.
At RainMaster, we offer three levels of irrigation programs designed to keep your system working properly from spring through fall: Peak Performance, Optimum Operation, and Efficient Essentials.
You choose the level that suits your needs and let us do the rest.
Your irrigation program should be designed to match your needs. Every visit is planned to optimize the performance of your irrigation system, reduce water usage, and promote a healthier landscape.
Sign up for our Peak Performance plan, and we’ll come out every month and adjust the settings for you.
When you’re ready to put your trust in us, we can’t wait to meet you — and help you make the best choices for your lawn.
Want to be confident about your choice for irrigation services in Eau Claire, WI & Minneapolis? Request a quote today! We’ll review your options together so you can make a confident decision. Then, you can finally enjoy your lawn and stop worrying about it.
