Quick Tips for Watering Your Lawn in Pittsburgh, PA

Watering your lawn can be a simple process when living in Pittsburgh, but it can be somewhat complicated when it comes to efficiency. You’ll need to keep the grass adequately hydrated so it doesn’t drown or get dried out. Both extremes can cause stress on the growth and texture of your lawn. Consider watering your lawn about once or twice a week, to not oversaturate it. Water deeply down to the roots, making sure to get down as much moisture as possible.

By watering shallowly, the moisture won’t go as deep as it is needed. Making the grass more susceptible to drying out and turning brown, even though you are watering. Watering lightly will encourage a shallow root system, putting your lawn under stress if only a top inch of soil dries out.

When should you water?

Watering early in the morning increases the chances of the water reaching the root system before the heat of the day has peaked. Watering later in the day has a higher risk of evaporating before it reaches the roots of your lawn. The possibility of fungus can develop at night because of the ground becoming oversaturated.

Think about it this way, if you water infrequently when the weather is hot and dry, then the water reaches the roots of the grass better. You will need to deep water when only watering infrequently though, encouraging the turf to better develop the much-needed extensive deeper root system.

If you use a sprinkler or irrigation system, you’ll need to apply about an inch of rain weekly if there hasn’t been much rain that week. It’s better to have one deep, long session which soaks the ground rather than watering your lawn each day only a little bit.

Be sure to water enough, so the soil is moistened about six inches down. This is the depth of a grass root system which is healthy. To check to see how far down the water is seeping, during the first watering, check the soil every 15 minutes. By taking a shovel and turning the soil over gently to check, you can see how far the water has reached within that time period. Time how long it took for that amount of water to reach that depth of soil and then you’ll know how long to water next time.

Keeping your lawn green by watering correctly isn’t difficult. Just by knowing what you’re doing and how much to water, you can have a green lawn all summer long.

For more information on lawn care in your area, visit our Pittsburgh lawn care page. 

Featured image: Cappi Thompson / Flickr