am I the only person watering my grass

[Anonymous]

We had to reseed so we watered for that but not anymore. I'm from CA and grew up with a dad who had a very precise lawn watering routine, and everyone has lawn sprinklers, so moving here was a bit of a shock!

[Anonymous]

We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea we've never watered our lawn, come to think of it.

+1

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

It's already established, if you keep watering it like that it will have very shallow roots and be very drought-sensitive. Then you really will have to water.

[Anonymous]

If grass is too weak to survive on its own without human intervention, it deserves to die. Survival of the fittest!

[Anonymous]

We water it because we are trying to grow new grass and put down seeds. We have some patches we try to fill in every year. And yes, we haven't had much rain. We do it at night, just a quick soaking. Not a huge deal at all. We have a small yard though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea we've never watered our lawn, come to think of it.

+1

+2

+3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

It's already established, if you keep watering it like that it will have very shallow roots and be very drought-sensitive. Then you really will have to water.

PP here- so how long does it need to be watered after seeding? When is it considered “established”? I’m not watering every day by any means- I ran the sprinkler yesterday as it hasn’t rained since the weekend. Probably didn’t help that we seeded in a couple shifts- initially in late March but then a few patches in mid-April where the birds had eaten it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

It's already established, if you keep watering it like that it will have very shallow roots and be very drought-sensitive. Then you really will have to water.

PP here- so how long does it need to be watered after seeding? When is it considered “established”? I’m not watering every day by any means- I ran the sprinkler yesterday as it hasn’t rained since the weekend. Probably didn’t help that we seeded in a couple shifts- initially in late March but then a few patches in mid-April where the birds had eaten it all.

That’s plenty long enough. It’s fine. Keep an eye on it. If it starts to look like it’s struggling, water it deeply (put a tuna can out on the grass and run the sprinkler until there is an inch inside - like an hour probably) once/week. Frequent, shallow watering is just for when it is seeds and tiny sprouts. It has roots just like the tops of the grass now. So shallow watering won’t encourage the roots to go down deeper, which is what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

It's already established, if you keep watering it like that it will have very shallow roots and be very drought-sensitive. Then you really will have to water.

PP here- so how long does it need to be watered after seeding? When is it considered “established”? I’m not watering every day by any means- I ran the sprinkler yesterday as it hasn’t rained since the weekend. Probably didn’t help that we seeded in a couple shifts- initially in late March but then a few patches in mid-April where the birds had eaten it all.

That’s plenty long enough. It’s fine. Keep an eye on it. If it starts to look like it’s struggling, water it deeply (put a tuna can out on the grass and run the sprinkler until there is an inch inside - like an hour probably) once/week. Frequent, shallow watering is just for when it is seeds and tiny sprouts. It has roots just like the tops of the grass now. So shallow watering won’t encourage the roots to go down deeper, which is what you want.

Ok thanks, it doesn't sound like I've been too offbase then.

[Anonymous]

We've never bothered watering unless we just spread grass seed. And then we usually planned to spread grass seed right before a rain.

Just not really worth it. The grass will become dormant and then come back when the rain comes.

We're letting ours grow to about 4 inches this year before mowing to choke out the weeds--seems to be working. A plus is that it is still really green without as much rain.

[Anonymous]

We water everyday with a goal of an inch of water a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We water everyday with a goal of an inch of water a week.

Do you understand why infrequent and longer is better than short, daily watering? Do you not care?

[Anonymous]

No. I waste water on my stupid lawn because my stupid HOA is obsessed with perfect lawn. Lawn are stupid. I was stupid for buying into an HOA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We overseeded earlier in the spring, so I’m still watering every few days when we don’t get rain. So sense in letting the new grass/clover die so soon.

It's already established, if you keep watering it like that it will have very shallow roots and be very drought-sensitive. Then you really will have to water.

Exactly and turf grass has short roots anyway. This is a huge waste of time and effort because it will mat and be insanely high-maintenance. They should focus on shading the lawn and taking care of the trees which will shade the lawn and reduce the heat/sun stress of the grass. We bought a house where someone kept watering and watering and it is a royal PIA to rehab the sections we aren't replacing with lower maintenance plantings.

Really, though, the grass should be allowed to go dormant or shrunk and planted with more useful plants that are less wasteful of resources. Watering lawns is incredibly wasteful.