Bit of a longer read today (1.5 mins) but survive to the end and you'll never have to look at burnt, straw-like lawn again.
Want to stop your lawn turning brown...or bring it back to life?
Here's how to do it, using nothing but water.
Two rules before you start:
1) Deep and infrequent. Never light and daily.
Light, daily watering only helps shallow-rooted weeds and Poa annua. Water deep into the soil to force your grass roots down in search of moisture. That's the secret to a lawn that holds up when the weather turns.
2) Your lawn needs roughly 25mm of water per soak.
Notice I haven't given you a timeframe. Keep reading...
How much is 25mm?
Grab an empty tuna tin (flat-bottomed, roughly 25mm tall). Stick it on the grass where the sprinkler reaches. Turn the sprinkler on. When the tin's full, turn it off and check the clock.
That's your watering time sorted forever.
But how often?
Most will say once a week and leave it there. Problem is, right now your lawn is losing water at record levels to evapotranspiration.
Evapotranspiration = one fancy word for two simple things (evaporation and transpiration). In plain English: how much water your lawn is losing to the climate.
Here's the free tool that tells you exactly how much water your lawn is losing per day.
Take mine as an example. Right now it's losing 6.38mm per day.
Do the maths: 25mm (what I put down) ÷ 6.38mm (what's lost daily) = ~4 days.
So I could water once a week. But my grass would be running on empty by day four. To keep it thriving, I need to put 25mm down every four days, not every seven.
Match your watering to what your lawn is actually losing and you'll stop wondering why the sprinkler doesn't seem to be working.
...And more importantly, everyone will ask how you did it!
As promised, lawn tips in under just over a minute.
Liam
Founder, Great British Lawn Co.
