Every August we get the same call: the beds look scorched, the lawn has gone straw-coloured, and the owner wants to know whether to water more. Almost always, the answer is to water less often and far more deeply.
Frequency is the problem, not volume
Shallow daily watering trains roots to stay in the top two inches of soil, which is exactly the zone that cooks first. A garden watered deeply twice a week develops roots that reach moisture the surface has already lost.
On our maintenance properties we run established beds on two cycles a week, each long enough to wet the soil to six inches. Test it with a screwdriver: if it pushes in easily to six inches an hour after watering, the cycle is long enough.
Water before dawn, not in the evening
Pre-dawn watering gives foliage time to dry as the sun comes up, which matters for fungal disease, and loses far less to evaporation than an afternoon cycle. Evening watering leaves leaves wet all night.
What restrictions actually allow
- Drip irrigation is usually exempt from the harshest stages, which is a large part of why we move beds off spray heads.
- Hand watering with a shut-off nozzle is generally permitted at any stage.
- New plantings often qualify for a temporary establishment variance. Ask before you assume.
Let the lawn go dormant
Brown Bermuda and buffalo grass in August is not dead grass. It is dormant, and it will come back. Pouring water into a lawn to keep it green through the worst six weeks of the year is the single most wasteful thing most properties do.
Protect the trees and the beds. The lawn can wait for September.
