How much water does my Denver lawn need?
Posted by Mic Ortega on Tuesday, July 10th, 2012 at 5:16pm.Up until this weekend, this incredible heat streak in Denver had done little to help the state of Denver lawns. Driving around last weekend I couldn’t believe how bad so many lawns looked, mine included. It got me wondering, how much water does my Denver lawn really need?
I searched around and found some great advice from Tony Seigert with Safe Home Inspection. He told me that in general, turf grasses need about 3/4 to 1 inch of water per week to maintain green color and active growth. However, during certain times in the summer, like now, when high temperatures are the norm, you should allow lawns to naturally slow down in growth. You can let the lawn go almost completely dormant in hot weather. In hot weather you may need an inch of water only about every three days.
In general, water as infrequently as possible. When you do water, water thoroughly so that moisture soaks down to the roots. One deep watering is much better than watering several times lightly. Watering to a depth of 4 to 6 inches encourages deeper, healthier root development. It also allows longer periods between watering. Early morning or night is the best time for watering, as less evaporation will occur at these cooler times.
It is hard to miss all the Denver Water billboards around town encouraging its customers to use less water, and with good reason. With the drought we are in, it is more important than ever to help conserve water. I found some helpful information on their website and tips I am certainly going to try.
According to the website, Denver Water’s summer watering rules are in effect May 1 to Oct. 1. There are no assigned watering days, but never water more than three days a week. Lawn watering is not allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to prevent losing water to evaporation.
Remember that each lawn is different, depending on the soil, amount of sunlight it receives and other landscaping factors. Use this chart as a guideline, but experiment with your lawn. Try watering your lawn in cycles — five minutes on, five minutes off — to allow water to penetrate the soil and create a healthier lawn with less water. And try taking two minutes off the watering times for each zone. If that works and your lawn stays green, take off another two minutes.
If all of Denver Water’s customers took two minutes off their watering times, we would save nearly one billion gallons of water each year.
I searched around and found some great advice from Tony Seigert with Safe Home Inspection. He told me that in general, turf grasses need about 3/4 to 1 inch of water per week to maintain green color and active growth. However, during certain times in the summer, like now, when high temperatures are the norm, you should allow lawns to naturally slow down in growth. You can let the lawn go almost completely dormant in hot weather. In hot weather you may need an inch of water only about every three days.
In general, water as infrequently as possible. When you do water, water thoroughly so that moisture soaks down to the roots. One deep watering is much better than watering several times lightly. Watering to a depth of 4 to 6 inches encourages deeper, healthier root development. It also allows longer periods between watering. Early morning or night is the best time for watering, as less evaporation will occur at these cooler times.
It is hard to miss all the Denver Water billboards around town encouraging its customers to use less water, and with good reason. With the drought we are in, it is more important than ever to help conserve water. I found some helpful information on their website and tips I am certainly going to try.
According to the website, Denver Water’s summer watering rules are in effect May 1 to Oct. 1. There are no assigned watering days, but never water more than three days a week. Lawn watering is not allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to prevent losing water to evaporation.
Remember that each lawn is different, depending on the soil, amount of sunlight it receives and other landscaping factors. Use this chart as a guideline, but experiment with your lawn. Try watering your lawn in cycles — five minutes on, five minutes off — to allow water to penetrate the soil and create a healthier lawn with less water. And try taking two minutes off the watering times for each zone. If that works and your lawn stays green, take off another two minutes.
If all of Denver Water’s customers took two minutes off their watering times, we would save nearly one billion gallons of water each year.
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