It’s been hot and dry all summer. During extreme weather conditions, it’s especially important to care for your landscape as fall arrives. Investing in fall care tasks can help your lawn and landscape survive the winter, which protects your investment.
Here are four keys to watering wisely while sustaining your lawn and landscape’s health.
- Water your lawn, shrubs and trees consistently into fall. Sometimes people stop watering too early, which causes their plants to dehydrate before fall arrives. This can make trees and shrubs more vulnerable to branch dieback and lawns more vulnerable to winterkill. To prevent damage, commit to watering consistently until mid-October rather than stopping in September. There’s no need to overwater, but watering regularly will help your plants go into dormancy in a healthy state rather than a stressed condition. If you winterize your sprinkler system early, water with a hose-end sprinkler periodically.
- Reduce the number of watering days per week. As the weather cools down in September, reduce from three to two watering days per week. This is a great way to save water as your lawn’s water need lessens. Take this step only when the air temperature drops consistently into the 70s. An easy way to avoid having to change your sprinkler schedule is to install a smart controller, which automatically adjusts your sprinkler system’s number of watering days based on actual weather conditions and qualifies for a $50 rebate.
- Don’t change the length of time you water each day. It’s important to wet the entire root zone each time you water. This practice ensures your plants have enough water to pull from the soil and reduces wilting between watering days. Run each sprinkler zone long enough to fill a cup with 1/2 inch depth of water. You can also use the run times based on sprinkler type as a starting point and adjust up or down as needed.
- Water before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. until Oct. 15. This Water Wise Rule reduces needless water waste due to evaporation. After Oct. 15, you can water any time of day to avoid water freezing on sidewalks and causing a slipping hazard. Until then, water in the morning or evening so the water goes to your lawn’s roots, not the atmosphere.
As the weather cools down, water less often each week rather than running your sprinklers for less time. Learn more seasonal watering tips.