Every homeowner wants their lawn to look beautiful and healthy, but at a time when many parts of the country are particularly prone to droughts, using all that precious water on your lawn can feel wasteful.
Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to conserve water while still making sure that your lawn is as lush and green as ever. So what are some of the most efficient ways to conserve water in your lawn?
1. Install Drought-Tolerant Sod in Your Lawn
The best way you can conserve water in your lawn is by installing drought-tolerant sod. Lawns with drought-tolerant grasses like Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall Fescue require much less water to maintain than other traditional grass lawns, allowing you to drastically reduce the amount of water you use on lawn maintenance.
2. Adjust Your Lawn Watering Schedule
When you water your lawn during the day, a considerable amount of that water is lost to evaporation. By only watering your lawn in the early morning or late evening, you’ll ensure that more water gets to your grass and less is lost to evaporation.
3. Water Deep and Less Frequently
You can also reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation by watering your lawn for longer periods of time and at less frequent intervals. When you water your lawn longer, the water sinks deeper into the ground, encouraging roots to grow deeper and reducing loss to evapòration.
4. Use Mulch
Putting down fresh mulch can also help conserve water in your lawn. Putting down mulch in the areas surrounding your lawn will help trap moisture in the ground and prevent weeds from growing, ensuring that your grass doesn’t have to compete for the water you give it.
5. Mow Your Lawn Regularly
Properly maintaining your lawn is essential to conserving the water in it. You should try to keep your grass at around 3 inches tall as this is the ideal height for most types of grass. Mowing your lawn regularly will help keep your lawn’s thirst at bay, saving you water in the process.
6. Aerate Your Lawn
Aerating your lawn is the process of perforating your lawn with tiny holes. These holes then allow air, water, and nutrients to penetrate much deeper into the soil than they otherwise would. When water penetrates deeper into the ground it is more likely to reach the grass’s roots and much less likely to be lost to evaporation or runoff.
7. Collect Rainwater
Installing rain collection barrels is another great way to conserve water. Using collected rainwater is much less wasteful than using tap water from your house, and depending on where you live, you might be able to collect more than enough water to maintain your lawn.
However, though legal in most places throughout the US, there are still a few places where rainwater collection is illegal so check your local laws before you decide to install any rain collection barrels.