Watering an Established Lawn (after two weeks):

• After establishing for the initial two weeks--water deeply (without runoff) and water less often to force the roots to go deep into the soil. Deep rooted lawns will be able to survive extreme heat better than shallow roots.
• Gradually cut back on the frequency of watering while increasing the amount of water (without letting it run off). Ideally, an established lawn should be watered no more than every other day during the hottest summer months.
• Use the “Watering Times” or cycling feature of your sprinkler timer to prevent wasting water
  
  Example: If watering for 15 minutes causes water to run off, change your controller settings so it will water 3 times for 5 minutes each time, an hour or two apart. Remember, wet sidewalks, wet driveways, and water running down the gutter is all wasted water.
  
  

• An automatic sprinkler system ISN’T “set it and forget it.” The “Water Budget” feature on most sprinkler controllers make it easy to adjust all watering times by changing only the water budget percentage.
  
  
  • During cooler, wetter weather, adjusting the Water Budget from 100% to 70% will apply 30% less water across all stations.
  • During hotter weather, adjusting the Water Budget from 100% to 110% will apply 10% more water across all stations.
    
• Investing in a rain shutoff sensor or soil moisture monitor will prevent your automatic sprinkler system from wasting water during a rainstorm.

A properly designed and maintained sprinkler system will save water. Once a week, walk through your sprinkler system while it's watering to make sure its watering your lawn, and not the sidewalk, driveways and gutters.

Fertilizing your Lawn:

• Lawns require 1 lb of nitrogen per 1000 square feet each year, with 1/3 applied during late winter, 1/3 applied late spring, and 1/3 applied early fall. Use the chart below to find the number of pounds of fertilizer to apply each application.
• Do Not Fertilize during the hot summer months. Ironite can be used during this time but be careful not to get ironite on driveways or sidewalks because it can stain concrete (sweep off excess Ironite before watering).
• Every bag of fertilizer has three numbers on it, (example: 15-15-15 and 16-8-8). The three numbers represent % of Nitrogen, % Phosphorous, % Potassium. There are many different kinds of fertilizer, one brand isn’t necessarily better for turf than the rest.
• Our Fertilizer Recommendation: 15-15-15, or any other fertilizer with numbers in the 10 to 20 range, and as even across the three numbers as you can find (9-9-9, 16-16-8, 17-5-10, etc….)

Pounds of Fertilizer for One Application
(Three Times a Year)