Last Updated on October 31, 2021 by Phil
Water is an essential part of growing a healthy lawn or garden. Unfortunately, you can easily use up a lot of water for your plants. This is especially true if you have a medium to large sized garden.
Whether it’s to save money, conserve water or get through the drought season, here’s how to keep your lawn healthy with less water. These simple ways will help you maintain a lush, green lawn while have less of an impact on your environment.
How to Keep Your Lawn Healthy with Less Water – 7 Simple Ways
1. Plant Trees to Add Shade
Trees not only add character to your home and garden then also provide shade. This makes them very helpful during the summer when temperatures go up.
The shade they provide helps your family stay cooler indoors without having to use air conditioning. They also provide you with space outside where you can enjoy the sunny weather.
Additionally, your garden also enjoys it. Shade helps cover plants from the intense heat of the sun. They also protect some plants that are sensitive to too much direct sunlight.
Finally, shade from trees helps lower the surrounding temperature. This reduces the amount of moisture that’s evaporated which helps keeps plants and grass hydrated longer.
2. Use Compost
Compost is another way to providing plants with nutrients. This improves the conditions of the soil surrounding the grass making it more enticing to grow. In addition some of the things you throw in the compost also contain moisture.
This extra moisture helps keep the grass hydrated so you don’t have to water as much.
3. Mulch Your Grass
When mowing your grass or raking your leaves it’s always a great idea to turn them into mulch. Mulch is free. It doesn’t cost you extra because it’s the shredded leaves and grass from your garden.
What’s great about mulch is that it not only degrades and turns into fertilizer for your lawn, it also provides an extra layer of protection from the heat.
In contrast to compost which goes into the soil, mulch is placed on top of the grass. This reduces the direct heat and light that grass is exposed to. While this isn’t ideal during the times when there isn’t much sun, it is very beneficial in hot climates and summer months.
4. Grow Perennials
Perennials are flowers that grow every year. Compared to annuals which grow once and year, you don’t have to replant perennials year after year.
Thanks to this, you’ll save money since you don’t have to replace the flowers in your garden year in and year out.
5. Aerate Your Lawn
Aerating your lawn is the process of poking holes into the soil. These half inch holes not only break up compacted soil, it also allows openings so that water, air, light and fertilizer are easier for the plants’ roots to access.
Doing so helps improve growth. It also lets the plants absorb more essential nutrients. This means you won’t need to water or add as much fertilizer.
6. Topdress Your Lawn
Topdressing is the process of adding a layer of fertilizer on to the soil in your garden. But unlike your normal application, you don’t mix the compost or fertilizer into the soil.
This gives you an extra layer anywhere from a quarter to half an inch of topdressing.
The reason this helps conserve water is that it helps maintain moisture. The covering layer also shades the plants underneath from sunlight. This resulting in a cooler environment and less water being evaporated from the ground.
Finally, the extra top layer allows you to absorb more water when it rains or when you water. There’s less water runoff since the layer becomes sponge that soaks in the excess liquid to release it later on.
7. Don’t Mow Your Grass Short
Mowing your lawn regularly lets your yard look neat and tidy. While this is great for aesthetics, it isn’t always the most practical thing to do.
During the warmer months, you may want to let your grass grow longer. The shaggy look may not win any home and garden awards. But, it will help your save money on water.
One of the reasons why longer grass helps reduce water costs is that the blades provide more shade for itself and the soil underneath. This reduces the amount of evaporation and helps keep the environment cooler.
In addition, longer grass also encourages deeper roots. This makes them stronger at their foundation preventing strong winds and other things to pull them out easily.
Longer grass also allows your lawn to store and preserve more water in the ground. This prevents drying out quickly.
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