Watering tips for your lawn / Lawns tips & watering

We cannot emphasise enough how important it is to water your lawn straight away, as soon as you have got it down.  If you don’t water it your lawn will dry out and start turning brown and look very nasty.  If you are doing a large area don’t wait until it is all finished, start watering once you have a few metres down, because that first hour in the sun is critical. Make sure you water methodically, thoroughly soaking every square metre before moving onto the next section.

Establishing your roots

The surface soil must be kept moist until the roots of the turf have established. To test later on, try to lift a corner of the turf, if it holds well it is established, if it comes away in your hand it needs more time.  This is also the way to determine whether the lawn is established enough to be mown, this can take between 1 to 8 weeks depending on location and the time of year.The amount of water your lawn will need will depend on local conditions.  A good idea is to leave a towel out on the lawn for the first few days, when the towel dries out, your lawn will immediately need more water, it is so critical for the first few days. Also move the towel around just so you don’t do any damage to the lawn.It is important that your lawn receives regular waterings and is prevented from drying out for the first 6 weeks or at least until it has been mown twice by which time it should be well established.

Remember less frequent deeper soakings are the way to go because that will encourage good strong deep roots, which is what every lawn owner should strive for.

If your lawn becomes slightly patchy 4 to 6 weeks after installation it is usually due to extreme weather or lack of correct watering during early establishment. There is not a lot you can do if this occurs, except give it some time and it will return to normal. Once it is established watering can be cut right back, Sir Walter lawns in most parts of Australia hardly need any regular watering to keep alive once established.

Except in really sandy locations such as Western Australia where weekly watering will be required.Don’t forget when it comes to watering always check and comply with any local water restrictions or better still if you haven’t done so already install a rain tank.