A year long calendar guide to help you with you watering.

The photos above are of my lawn. It’s a mix of common Kikuyu and Village Green Kikuyu with a basic reticulation setup. You can see how the lawn started and progressed in the pictures below.

Most people in Western Australia assume that to get these results, one needs to completely ignore the Water Corporation‘s sprinkler guidelines. Over-watering is wrongly assumed to be a necessary evil to get a beautiful lawn.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Believe it or not, these results came from using LESS water than allowed by the Water Corporation. Read on to discover the schedule I used.

Before we talk about the way I water for WA conditions, you will need to set your sprinklers up to get 10mm of water per station, per watering day. If you don’t know how to do this, this article I wrote will be of help. You will also need to understand how to make the most of your watering; more water does not always mean a better lawn (click here to learn more about that).

Once you have that understood, we can get to a month by month break down.

My Watering Calendar

• January: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent if needed.
• February: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent if one was not applied in January.
• March: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm for the first 2 weeks. Once a week for the rest of the month if needed.
• April: Sprinklers off. On occasion, one full watering day may be needed if there hasn’t been enough rain but this is unlikely.
• May: Sprinklers off.
• June: Sprinklers off.
• July: Sprinklers off.
• August: Sprinklers off.
• September: Sprinklers off.
• October: Watering a full 10mm but 1 day per week is typically enough. Up to 2 days may be required if temperatures are regularly over 30 degrees or if you see any wilting. Apply a high quality wetting agent and core aerate your lawn at the start of the month.
• November: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm.
• December: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent at the start of the month.

Other things to consider

Please note that this is to be used as a guide only. Some months may be hotter and drier than expected, so use common sense if you see any signs or heat stress like wilting or discolouration. In addition, this schedule will not work if you have broken sprinklers or clogged reticulation. Regular driving on the lawn, infrequent mowing or bad fertiliser practices all may have additional negative impacts on the health of your lawn.

If all of this seems like too much work for you, we are here to help. Contact Silverstone Gardening to organise a quote from one of our experienced and qualified gardeners

The post Brilliant lawn without wasting water: a monthly watering guide for serious WA lawn lovers appeared first on Silverstone Gardening.

Having a beautiful lawn and being water wise? It is possible.

Water is the most important aspect for anyone who wants a beautiful lawn, so checking your reticulation is the first priority of anyone who is wanting a beautiful, lush, green lawn.

The common mistake homeowners make

A lot of people have understood the WA Water Corp’s restrictions on homeowners to permit only 10 minutes of watering per station, per watering day. However, the truth is that it is a lot more than that. It’s actually 10mm of water per station, per watering day.

We have found this to be a great amount to maintain a beautiful, healthy lawn. The problem is that every house is different which means that there is no ‘one size fits all’ sprinkler run time; each person needs to work it out for themselves.

So how do you calculate exactly 10mm every time you water?

The answer is to measure your water usage by using free catch cups from your local retic shop.

Once you get some catch cups, place them on your lawn, run your sprinklers for 10 minutes to record how much water you collect. Use the following formula to find your perfect sprinkler run time:

[Sprinkler run time minutes] ÷ [mm of water collected] x 10 = [Correct sprinkler run time minutes]

So, for example, if you run your sprinklers for 10 minutes and collect 5mm of water, your formula should be 10÷5×10=20. For this example, 20 minutes of watering on the allocated watering days will give the perfect amount of water. Do this process on your lawn and repeat this process for every station.

If you still have any questions, watch this video below.

One more watering tip

Patchy water coverage will give a patchy lawn. Make sure your sprinklers are not blocked or damaged in any way.

Use the best quality sprinklers that you can afford as the higher quality sprinklers last longer and end up being better value for money.

Also remember that different sprinkler types may give different amounts of water so make sure you check your water usage over your whole lawn by placing your catch cups in several different spots.

If all of this seems too complicated or time consuming, contact Silverstone Gardening today. We have several retic experts available to help.

The post Your lawn needs water – here’s how you can give it the perfect amount appeared first on Silverstone Gardening.

On the 1st of September 2022, WA bore users will have their watering days reduced from three days per week to two days per week. Is a 33% drop in water usage a huge mathematical reduction? Yes. However, will that drop in water use negatively affect the health and quality of your lawn? Not if you are smart about it.
Here are 4 reasons why the WA ‘bore ban’ will not hurt smart lawn lovers and 5 examples to give you hope for the coming summer.

1. Wetting agents make a bigger difference than most people think (up to 20%)

In 2016, trials in WA conditions showed that using wetting agents can significantly improve soil moisture by 19.9% five weeks after application. Wetting agent producer SACOA (the makers of BioWett, Ralphy’s Refresh and more) released these figures on their website.

The reality is that it doesn’t matter how much water you put on your lawn. What truly matters is how much of that water actually makes it down to the root zone where it is needed.

There are many WA homeowners who will be shocked to find out just how much of the water they put on their lawn is being lost to evaporation and run-off. In most cases, the regular use of a quality wetting agent alone could make such a positive difference that a third watering day would not be missed.

2. Regular aeration makes your roots go deeper

Aeration reduces soil compaction. This, in return, increases water and nutrient uptake into the soil (10-30%). In addition, a huge benefit to reducing soil compaction is an increased root system.

In 2013, researchers showed that the harder a soil is to penetrate (caused by soil compaction), the less roots there will be.

Deeper roots means there is more water and nutrient uptake. I believe that many lawn lovers in WA will get a more beautiful lawn from two days watering with aeration and wetting agents than three days of bore watering only.

3. Quality fertilisers increase root growth

Urea and other nitrogen-only fertilisers are overused in lawn care. Whilst they cause beautiful green colour and increase leaf growth, they have no benefit at all for the roots or the stress-tolerance of your lawn.

Complete, high quality fertilisers (like WA-produced Baileys and Eco Growth) have a balanced blend of macro and micro nutrients that will help your lawn grow healthier, not just greener. The results of regularly using these high quality products will be a more drought and stress-tolerant lawn, even with reduced watering days.

4. Less frequent, more effective watering produces healthier roots and a more drought-tolerant lawn

The more frequently a lawn is watered, the less need there is for the lawn to send down roots deeper into the soil. This results in a shallow root system.

The more shallow the roots, the more susceptible the lawn is to heat and drought stress. This is because soil on or close to the surface is more likely to experience evaporation, temperature change and drying out.

Consequently, the roots in these surface areas are more likely to become stressed and damaged. If too many roots are in these areas, the result will be a stressed or even dying lawn.

Deeper roots are shielded from these problems; this results in healthier, happier lawns during hot spells.

5 examples of great lawns on two watering days a week

I wanted to finish by giving some hope to WA residents. Whilst we could write about lawn care for days and explain the pros and cons of each service, I thought it would be simpler to just show the results.

Here are five lawns. Kikuyu, Couch and Buffalo lawns to show that success isn’t grass specific. All these lawns are on two days a week watering, these photos have been taking between October and May not during the winter months. All of these lawns are maintained by Silverstone Gardening and have received all the services mentioned above. The results speak for themselves.

There will be some WA gardeners who will be hurt by this decision but it won’t be the smart and proactive lawn lovers.

If reading this article seemed like too much effort, too complicated or you just want some help, contact us today.

Click here to find out what our clients have to say about Silverstone Gardening!

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The post The data-driven reasons why the WA ‘bore ban’ will not hurt smart lawn lovers appeared first on Silverstone Gardening.