New lawn + hosepipe ban = HELP!!

hopefully you will get some decent rain this week .... the rain came as a blessing as Cambridge gardens needed it badly

 

you should mow the top 1/3rd of the grass blades ....

also ensure that the lawnmower blade is sharp .... you don't need to buy a new one .... remove the blade and take it to your nearest lawnmower repair shop ...

they will sharpen and balance it for a few pounds (while you wait)

I'm also a fan of seaweed fertilizer, and find it interesting that the guys added seaweed to the prepared bed before turfing (never knew that it was common practice when turfing)

 

I'm becoming convinced it only rains in Shiney land on the days you go out.
Therefore, you must get out more.

Having said that, we missed all the rain last week as well, not sure how because at one point they even forecast snow.

 

Shiney
the catch dropped has rebounded.
It's been raining here since lunchtime. No need to worry about watering the garden tonight.

 

Just think IF you had not reported it you would have unlimited water supply during the drought :-)

Jack McH

 

Digressing from the original topic very slightly, but not much, here's something I struggle to understand.

When we hear on the news about the drought, quite often in the same report, often in the same sentence, we will hear that ground water is lower than it has been in X years, and at the same time the water companies are leaking X gazillion gallons per day.

Surely that leaked water isn't really lost? Is it not in the ground, helping to prevent the water table dropping still further?

 

Its the wrong bit of ground.
Where it goes is not back into the reservoir.
Somebody - probably Ziggy - has it leaching into his Veg plot, raising the water level and improving his Brassicas

 

We don't have reservoirs round here, we have boreholes, and water comes out of those. Water leaking underground will find its way back to the water table (more or less), bad leaks that make it up to the surface will run off. The leak here flooded the, normally dry, ditch. Most of the water had been reabsorbed by the time it had gone half a mile down the ditch ...

 

Here's my views:

I agree you need to water it for 30 minutes at a time. Note that you will not be able to achieve that from a watering can!

Lets say your tap outputs 20L per minute (you can time filling a bucket), and your sprinkler runs for 30 minutes, that's 600L of water. Your water butt probably doesn't hold that much anyway, plus its about 60 watering can fulls!

Assuming your sprinkler covers 10M x 10M in one go, and you put 600L on, that's 6mm of water. Scale the numbers up according to time-to-fill-bucket and/or the area your sprinkler covers,

I disagree that you need to do it every day (initially), although "belt and braces" the advice isn't wrong, but in times of drought, or if you are paying via a meter, then its excessive.

But I would advise you very strongly not to change to once a week. Your new turf will be dead by then! (Although ... horses for courses ... if you have relatively cold days, and no wind to increase evaporation, then you might be fine)

The only roots in new turf are within the turf. You need them to grow into the soil underneath. So you need the soil underneath to be moist, to encourage the roots downwards, but you also need to get the turf drenched so that, in the meantime, it stays alive. Some water will soak through the turf, and that will provide moisture underneath, but the rest is either "drunk" by the grass, or evaporates, and that will be gone in a couple of days in hot weather, 4 days in warm weather, and a week in "cold" weather.

Watering at night will reduce the evaporation losses to almost nothing. I personally think that is better than early morning, as morning-watering means that some water will still be available for evaporation once the sun is up.

Not sure that I would reduce watering time, I have always reduced frequency - so 30 minutes once every 2 day for 2 weeks, then every 3 days ... etc ... I was taught that you should water thoroughly at each "watering" and then delay until the plant is about to become stressed. As the grass roots through to the soil below it will be able to survive for progressively longer periods on its own.

My experience is of laying turf in mid summer. No way did it not still need watering at 28 days!! ... but ... mid Summer is a daft time to lay turf, emergencies excepted.

Also ... do NOT be in a hurry to mow. If the turf has not rooted into the soil below, 100%, then the blades will just "rip up" / "lift" the turf, and you are back to square one. Rolling it would help though - ensures that any air pocked under turf are compressed, so the roots can reach the soil. I would say you could do that after 2 - 3 weeks. (If your mower has a roller then either put the blades right up, or if they still make contact with the grass then tilt the mower backwards so the blades are in the air.) Don't use the sort of roller designed to compress tarmac though! a "light" roller will do, like you get on a lawn mower.

You will probably struggle to get the grass to manageable length all summer. The turf is probably high-as-a-kite on Nitrogen fertilizer, you should not cut more than 1/3rd off at any mowing, and the residue of Nitrogen probably means you will struggle to get it "short" this season (but leaving it "longer" will help in drought anyway, so don't worry about it being a bit shaggy this year, plan for a bowling green (well, whatever length you have actually envisaged) NEXT season)

Yes, keep off it as much as possible, however if you do need to walk on it put a plank/board down (to spread your weight), that will be fine (don't leave the board down though, the grass under it will go yellow of course!)

 

herewith more info (like I said, lots of conflicting methods on the internet)

snip:
http://www.bachmans.com/Garden-Care...yCode=02&pageIndex=_pageIndexToken_newSodCare

For the initial watering, 1/2" of water at each watering will soak the sod adequately. In later weeks, as the watering frequency decreases, 1" should be applied at each watering. To determine how long to run your sprinkler, use a small can with low sides placed in the sod to measure the water (a tuna can works well).

Allow sod to grow 4"-5" before mowing. Mow no shorter than 3".

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http://www.foegleylandscape.com/landscape maintenance sod care instructions.html

so, perhaps it's good to get one of those moisture meters and check the lawn in several places

also, I do a lot of work in a new build area ..... they have been turfing loads of areas over the past few weeks .... They have not been watering it daily, and it looks fine

 

Aaron you say you think the lawn has knitted fairly well? If that's right then the best thing you can do for your lawn now is give it a light trim. Your lawn has been regularly cut up until now and stopping cutting for a while can do more harm than good.

What kind of mower will you be using? I wouldn't recommend using a hover style mower due to their propensity to lift the new turf.

If you have a height adjustable mower and if you think the lawn looks ready for a cut make sure your blades are sharp and on a high setting and cut slowly making sure you're not lifting any turf as you go. If any turf does lift then stop and ignore that patch and wait until it is knitted properly. As you're aiming to conserve water on the lawn you could leave the clippings down to act as a very light mulch. This combined with keeping the lawn at a slightly higher cut than normal will help to prevent a certain amount of evaporation, keeping moisture where you want it.