(Durham NC) Renting: Need help with lawn watering schedule

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We're renting a home. We're responsible for the lawn (mowing, watering, and weeding). There's quite a bit of lawn and we don't know the watering schedule. We don't know the soil or grass type but I think this area has clay soil which means water drainage concerns.

The homeowner left (2) grass sprinklers but we don't know how long to run them and how frequently? We've owned homes in Austin, Fort Worth, Clarksville, and Fayetteville but I can't apply what I know there to here. At each home, we had a water audit done to develop a watering schedule for in-ground and above-ground sprinklers. I really want to avoid wasted water not only for the fact that Central NC is in moderate drought conditions and we don't want to waste money.

The home is SE/NW facing. The backyard gets full sun 6+ hours/day and is sloped towards the house (which means excess water will pool along the side yards) The front lawn is flat and gets full sun all day.

Can you suggest a baseline water schedule such that we're considered taking care of the lawn but not over-exerting ourselves?

Thanks

Featured Answer

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

5 years ago

An established lawn needs 1 inch of water per week, preferably delivered all at the same time. Obviously, rainfall would factor in to that equation but you want to water as infrequently but as deeply as possible when you do water. This encourages deeper root penetration, which leads to increased drought tolerance, which leads to less need for watering overall

To waste as little water as possible, water very early in the day so the potential for evaporation is the slightest.

It is easy to evaluate how much water is being delivered. Place a few cat food or tuna cans around the garden when you run the sprinklers and determine how long it takes to fill the cans. Since they hold about a inch of water, how long it takes to fill the can is how long you need to run the sprinklers.

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Comments (6)

Jen K (7b, 8a)
Original Author
5 years ago
@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) Depending on the quality of the sprinkler it'll probably take 30 minutes to deliver an inch of water. I'm guessing five zones. So we're looking at two two and a half hours.

Now we just have to wait for the property management company to fix the outdoor water spigots and we'll get started.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
Do the zones not run simultaneously?

btw, it can be remarkable just how little water is needed to keep a lawn healthy. I never water my lawn :-) It may receive some overspray when I water planting beds but water is at a premium here and I won't waste it on a lawn. I am in a cooler summer climate but I also get far less rainfall than you and almost none from the end of June through to the end of September. And because I do not support the need to maintain a lush, green lawn 24/7, I allow it to go dormant in summer. It won't look great during that period but it "magically" comes back to rich green life in fall as temps cool and rains begin.

Note that the allowing to go dormant works for cool season lawns which naturally want to enter dormancy in the heat of summer. Warm season lawns tend operate in the opposite manner - dormant in winter; active in summer. Not sure where Durham fits on that scale :-)
Jen K (7b, 8a)
Original Author
5 years ago
@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) these are mobile sprinklers not in ground which is what I'm used to. Although we've set plenty of sod so I've had my fair share of moving sprinklers around and adjusting them.

Right now Central North Carolina is going through a drought; I think we're down by 6 inches? I had crazy rain over the winter and spring so it was great going into April but June has been hard.

I estimate five zones: front side yard; two on each other side of the backyard; the other front side yard and front yard.

The rental agreement says we're responsible for lawn maintenance which includes watering so we'll just have to make it work. It's just frustrating when the homeowner doesn't know they're online so we can maintain their yard.
krnuttle
5 years ago
I would get clarification of what is expected in the rental agreement. One person has one interpretation of Lawn Maintenance which may be different from another. ie does the rental agreement mean to maintain a golf course green type of yard or one that does not get to shaggy. Does the agreement mean no weeds or one that looks nice.
Jen K (7b, 8a)
Original Author
5 years ago
@krnuttle I hope it's not golf course quality because they didn't leave us with one to start with. It means edge and mow the lawn, no weeds, and can pass the HOA (not that I think the HOA actually works around here looking at some yards). Of course, I don't want to leave (and we might leave early if our house is ready on time) and I get a sod bill to replace what died.

It's just annoying that the landlord states something so vague no realizing that it's more involved than simply watering the lawn. More than likely it's because the homeowners don't know anything about lawn maintenance.