We all love a good lawn, and we often take precautions and steps to ensure that our lawns are desirable in their visual characteristics. However, sometimes, we go a little too far in lawn care and prevent rather than promote lawn health. One such way is overwatering. Overwatering is described as giving your healthy and mature lawn water too often. Watering your lawn every day or every other day can cause serious problems that will hinder your lawn’s health and prosperity. Overwatering is a prevalent issue in lawn health as it can also occur when the lawn gets too much rain. Listed below is what usually happens as a result and tips to address the arising issues.
Overwatering can promote the growth of weeds.
A symptom of an overwatered lawn includes the presence of many weeds like crabgrass and nutsedge, thatch, and fungal growth like mushrooms. This issue usually occurs on a lawn that has been consistently overwatered for more than two years. Your watering plus rainfall can create a perfect environment for these plants to grow and suffocate the lawn grass.
Overwatering from rainfall can drown the plant roots.
Grass plants cannot use or need a large amount of water. If you have a healthy lawn, this means that the soil is most likely composed of a blend of silt, clay, and sand. This mixture has porous spaces filled with air that is pushed out when the soil fills with water from rainfall. Oxygen is vital to plant growth, so once the water pushes out the air, it becomes harder for the plants to photosynthesize, and if the problem persists, the roots will suffocate and die. It produces a shallow root system and compromises the quality of the lawn.
Overwatered lawns result in stressed plants.
Stress in plants usually occurs when the turf plant’s roots die due to a lack of oxygen. As a result, this issue causes susceptibility to diseases and insect damage and compounds their simplicity. In this, minor problems with insects and conditions become more significant
problems when the plants have shallow roots, as the roots are determinants of the plant’s beauty and health.
How to fix your overwatering issue
1. If rain is creating the above issues with your lawn, simply turn off your irrigation system during the rainy season. Watering your lawn while it already receives the same from rainfall is a bit redundant. Stopping your watering saves not only your lawn but also energy and water that could be diverted elsewhere. It also results in less water being forced into the soil, preventing all the issues associated with overwatering.
2. When it rains too much on your lawn, the soil becomes compact, which forces out air that the plants need. There are several options to combat this problem. You can apply mulch or groundcovers to prevent the waterlogging associated with heavy rains. In this case, heavy mulch is need for it to prevent soil compaction effectively. The second option is to use a core aerator to ventilate the soil. This tool removes small plugs in the soil and eases the compression so plants can breathe adequately. It is crucial to select an aerator based on your needs. You can also manually relieve compaction in the soil by using a metal rod or wooden dowel rod to make holes in your lawn.
3. Consider lawn treatment services if your lawn has brown or yellow patches and other issues that do not go away when you reduce watering and address the other issues. These services can provide an in-depth investigation into your lawn problems and offer solutions to assist.
