How often to water grass?

[WindyCityMom]

I live in a shared living situation with family. DHs father and grandfather got some people to put grass in the backyard (it was previously dirt with sand on top from a pool, but they got rid of most of the sand and tilled or whatever).

They didn't put seed, they had rolled mats of turf that they put down. this was about a month ago.

My husband's grandfather waters the grass like there's no tomorrow! He waters 2+ times per day! I read somewhere that grass only needs to be watered 3 times per week. He's got this crazy sprinkler that killed a bunch of my seedlings- it's crazy powerful and puts out a TON of water (flooded the concrete portion of the yard, actually).

So how does one go about taking care of backyard grass? Any resources available aside from the ones that recommend putting down toxins for pests, etc.? That's all I can seem to find so I'm looking for opinoins from a "crunchier" standpoint

[cschick]

Originally Posted by WindyCityMom

I live in a shared living situation with family. DHs father and grandfather got some people to put grass in the backyard (it was previously dirt with sand on top from a pool, but they got rid of most of the sand and tilled or whatever).

They didn't put seed, they had rolled mats of turf that they put down. this was about a month ago.

My husband's grandfather waters the grass like there's no tomorrow! He waters 2+ times per day! I read somewhere that grass only needs to be watered 3 times per week. He's got this crazy sprinkler that killed a bunch of my seedlings- it's crazy powerful and puts out a TON of water (flooded the concrete portion of the yard, actually).

So how does one go about taking care of backyard grass? Any resources available aside from the ones that recommend putting down toxins for pests, etc.? That's all I can seem to find so I'm looking for opinoins from a "crunchier" standpoint

Sod is annoying. You need to keep it wet enough to encourage it to root, without keeping it so wet that there is a layer of water underneath and it will not root. Look up watering new sod for watering schedules to help sod root. It sounds like he's overwatering, which can damage the sod/prevent it from properly rooting. The first week it's in, you're supposed to water 2 times daily, after the first week through about week 4, cut back to 1 time daily but with deep watering. (Has it rooted yet? Can you grab the grass and pull it up like a piece of carpet? If it hasn't rooted yet after a month, there's a problem.)

Once the sod is established, it all depends on what you want. In Chicago, an inch of water a week will keep grass alive and vaguely green through July and August. That will generally require watering 2-3 times a week.

To just keep it alive (but brown and basically hibernating in the heat) it needs an inch of water a month. Some summers we get this from rain, some summers we don't. If there's been no rain for an entire week during July/August, we generally put out the sprinklers for one evening. Our grass is generally half green/half brown during those periods.

The neighbors with the lush green grass water every other day through those periods.

[luv-my-boys]

It really depends on what type of sod they put in and your area. Typically sod does require a lot of watering at first to get it established espeically during the first yr. However over watering can kill it as well as its literally flushing the nutrients to the little soil it has.

Ddi the people who install it give him a schedule or an idea of how often? if not you can find out usually by google if not a local (family) type nursery might be able to help you.

As far as treating the grass. I am happy to say there are natural non pesticide ways of heping the grass. When we first moved into our house the previous family did not take care of the lawn, like it literally looked as if there was dry hay on top of dry soil. We honestly thought we'd need to install new sod in the whole yard but on advice of a local nursery man we tried a few of their organic products and hallelujah we have green grass now. it did take 2 seasons but we have grass..like soft green grass. I cant remmeber the name of the line we used but I know one of them was eb stones.

[lunarlady]

I've been considering a book called "The lawn and garden owner's manual". It's just what it says. But I haven't actually read it, so I can't say for sure if it's good.

With established grass, yes, you can water 2-3 times a week. But getting sod to root is a different story. However, if the water is flowing off the lawn and flooding other areas, then it is too much water at one time. Watering 2-3 times a day can actually be good for sod, but only a little water each time! Like 5 minutes max for each area. It sounds like he has the right idea, but is leaving the sprinkler on far too long. Once it is established, you can cut back on the watering without harming the grass.

[JamieCatheryn]

New grass definitely needs a little water 1-3 times on a dry day. Once it's established, I never, ever water the grass. If I lived in a region I had to, I'd switch to something besides lawns.

[WindyCityMom]

Thanks everyone! Well, it's still alive, I don't know how, with the amount of water that it gets! They finally quit using the sprinkler after a few more of my plants got knocked out, but it's still getting watered a few times a day.