Seven Tips to Better Irrigating Your Lawn

How to keep your lawn lush and lovely during the long summer season

What do you do if your T.V. weather person predicts a heat wave of near record high temperatures and no rain for the next week or so?
You learn how to effectively water your landscape and lawn to keep your plants and grass alive.
If you live in the Rockland, Westchester, Bergen, or Orange Counties, Joe Holland, of Majestic Lawn and Landscape, suggests these seven tips to irrigating your lawn during the driest and hottest part of the summer:

1. Water your lawn and landscape to reach the roots, not just the blades. The key to this type of irrigation is to water more deeply and less frequently
2. If there has been infrequent rain showers, give your lawn a deep soaking, once a week, where the water is penetrating six to eight inches down into the grass’s root systems
3. Don’t forget your trees and shrubs. To keep these plants alive, you need to water them three times longer than you water your lawn. Older, established plants don’t need as much water as newer plants
4. Early morning watering is the best time for irrigating because it keeps water in the soil rather than it evaporating into the atmosphere. If you wait until later in the evening to water your lawn, fungus can grow from water sitting on the grass overnight. Afternoon watering should be done around 7 p.m.
5. To save water, adjust your sprinklers to hit only your lawn and landscape. Keep it from hitting the sidewalks and driveways
6. Consider getting an automated irrigation system which takes out the guesswork for watering your lawn
7. Follow your county’s guidelines for water conservation during those times when water restrictions are in place during a dry spell.

Joe also suggests that you invest in an automated irrigation system if you’re not home often enough to give your landscape and turf a good soaking. An automated irrigation system saves you time, money, and aggravation, as well as saves your plants from drying out during a heat wave.
Here are some benefits to investing in an automated irrigation system:

• It’s custom-designed for your property so that your lawn and landscape get the right amount of water
• You have a choice in sprinkler heads. You can choose a drip line irrigation that delivers water slowly and precisely to your landscape, or you can choose the pop-up or rotor heads, which evenly spread water across small or large areas. And there are many configurations available when it comes to sprinkler heads. Just ask your dealer
• Controllers automatically turn the water on and off when you’re not at home
• You can schedule your watering to the cooler parts of the day so less water is evaporated or affected by wind drift
• Independent station programming allows you to manage how much water is needed in the different parts of your yard
• Rain sensors turn off the system when it’s raining and keep it off for the appropriate amount of time after a good rain to conserve water.

If you want to learn more about irrigation and sprinkling systems in the Rockland, Westchester, Bergen, or Orange Counties, contact us or call Majestic Lawn and Landscape at 845-708-2988.