Goin’ through the Big D… Don’t Mean Dallas! (Or Divorce)

Remember Mark Chestnut? He was a country music singer back when country music was actually country. He had a song titled “Goin’ through the Big D”. Mark was talking about divorce in his song, but I’m talking about drought. Which might as well be a 4 letter word in my book. It seems crazy to think that we could actually be in a drought considering all the rain we’ve had this year. At some points during the year, I wondered if it was ever going to quit raining. Now I’m wondering when we will get the next one.

There are a couple of things I want to share with you about watering your lawn and going through dry times. First, bermuda grass lawns need on average 1.5 inches of rain per week to be healthy. So, how do you know how long to water to get 1.5 inches? Here’s what I do. I take a rain gauge and set it up in an area where I’m watering the lawn. Then I set the sprinkler to run for 30 to 45 minutes. After that time, I’ll check the gauge to see how much water is in it. Then I adjust my watering schedule to get 1.5 inches per week.  For example, if I water my lawn for 30 minutes and have .25″ in the gauge, then I’ll water my lawn for an hour (.5″) 3 times per week. So what do you do if it rains? Simply adjust your watering schedule. If I water for an hour on Monday (.5″) and it rains .25″ on Tuesday, then I’ll only water for 30 minutes on Wednesday (.25″). Friday will go back to an hour (.5″).

***Important note: I’m only using these numbers as an example. You have to take the time to find out how much your sprinkler is putting out every 30 minutes.

The second thing I want to make you aware of is that we do not use as aggressive products to kill weeds during times of drought. You are probably asking yourself why. The reason for this is that when the grass is stressed, herbicides do more damage to the desired turf. In other words, your good grass turns brown. Most of the time this damage is not permanent, but IT WILL NEED WATER to recover. I’m sure you’ve seen your lawn after we sprayed and thought “they really messed up and turned my lawn brown.” Then a couple weeks later the grass recovers and you don’t have weeds. The problem when it’s dry is that the grass won’t recover as quickly, and it will need water in order to do so.

Some of you may be kind of glad that it’s dry because the grass doesn’t grow as fast and you don’t have to mow as often. I certainly understand that, but I do want to remind you that a dry fall can lead to dead grass in the spring. Right now your lawn is beginning to prepare for dormancy. That’s why we are putting down a fertilizer with a high amount of potassium. Your lawn will need water to store up in it’s root system along with the potassium in order to come out of dormancy healthy.

Thanks for checking out our latest blog, and here’s a little Mark Chestnut for you to help get you through the day!