How will watering 2 days per week affect your lawn?

By now you’ve heard the bad news: Colorado had record-low snowpack this past winter and now Denver Water and many other cities are limiting outdoor watering to two days per week.

Denver Water depends on mountain snow for its water supply, and with the dismal snowpack, Denver Water declared a Stage 1 drought in March with the goal of reducing indoor and outdoor water use by 20%. The declaration will help stretch existing water supplies and reduce the likelihood of increasing restrictions later this summer.

“Outdoor water use accounts for roughly 40% of overall water consumption every year, so it’s critical that our customers follow our watering restrictions to help protect the water we have in our reservoirs,” said Austin Krcmarik, water demand and efficiency planner at Denver Water.

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What’s new this year?

In the past under normal watering rules, customers could water any day of the week, but no more than three days per week. Under Stage 1 drought, customers now have two assigned watering days from May 1 through October 1.

Here is the assigned watering days schedule:

• Single-family even address: Sunday and Thursday.
• Single-family odd address: Wednesday and Saturday.
• All others, including multifamily and commercial: Tuesday and Friday.

Denver Water’s suggested watering times are shorter than in the past to help customers reduce water consumption and comply with drought restrictions.

What to expect

So how will the new watering restrictions and run times affect your lawn? That depends somewhat on weather conditions and whether your sprinkler system is running efficiently.

“Kentucky bluegrass will survive under these watering rules,” Krcmarik said. “If we have cool and wet weather, it won’t look much different than past years, but we want to warn people that if we have some prolonged hot and dry spells this summer, their grass will show signs of stress.”

Krcmarik said grass could turn yellow or brown in dry weather, but the amount of water allowed is enough to keep the “crowns” of the grass alive. By keeping the crowns alive, when cooler, wetter weather returns, the grass will start to green up again.

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What is cycle and soak?

Along with this year’s watering schedule of two days per week on assigned days, Denver Water customers also will see a change to the watering run times on this year’s watering chart.

Our experts are encouraging customers to use the “cycle-and-soak” watering method.

Here’s how it works: instead of running a sprinkler zone for the full time during one watering session, you split the zone’s time into three cycles. For example, instead of running a zone for 12 minutes all at once, you run the zone three times, or cycles, for four minutes each.

“Cycle and soak is a tried-and-true method of maximizing the water you put onto your grass,” Krcmarik said. “By splitting up the times and taking a break between each session, the water has time to soak into the ground.”

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The cycle-and-soak method is useful because the soil at many homes in Denver Water’s service area has a high clay content, which means the soil can only absorb so much water at a time.

Once the soil is saturated, additional water from the sprinkler will simply start puddling, or run off and go down the sidewalk and onto the street. Cycle-and-soak is also a great technique if your grass is on a slope or a hill.

It’s easy to set up cycle-and-soak timing with most modern irrigation controllers, especially ones that you can control with an app on your phone.

The key is to allow a rest time between each watering zone’s cycle. Flatter lawns benefit from a 30-minute rest period, while sloped lawns need 60 minutes between each cycle. Consider running all of your zones and then starting at the beginning for the second cycle, and then again for the third cycle.

The cycle-and-soak technique works the same with a hose-connected sprinkler; just remember to move the sprinkler around the yard after each watering session.

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New watering times for plants and native grasses

Denver Water also is sharing suggested watering run times for water-wise ColoradoScape plants, shrubs and native grasses. The same cycle-and-soak method applies to these plants also, as you want to make sure water gets to the root of the plants and doesn’t run off.

Water-wise plants and shrubs only need extra water once a week if it hasn’t rained, unlike Kentucky bluegrass, which needs supplemental water twice a week.

Note that these suggested watering times are for established plants. New plants should follow watering instructions on the purchase container during the establishment period.

Have a date night and tune up your sprinkler system

Another great way to maximize your water is to give your irrigation system a tune-up.

You can figure out what kind of tune-up your system needs by doing what we like to call having a “date night” with your yard. Just grab an ice-cold beverage and walk around your yard while the sprinklers are running and check for any issues.

Remember to look and listen, as sometimes you can hear leaks that may be undetected to the eye. Broken sprinkler heads, leaks in water lines and valve boxes are all common places to find problems. Fixing these issues will ensure you’re getting the most out of the water you run through your sprinklers.

Don’t forget to check that your sprinklers are aimed at the grass and plants, as you don’t want to be “that guy” who’s always watering the sidewalk.

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Lawn care tips

There are simple steps you can take to help out your grass too.

Try to aerate at least once a year, in the spring or fall — or both. This loosens up the soil to let air, nutrients and water get down deep into the soil, which promotes deeper roots. Keep in mind that if your grass is yellow or brown due to lack of water, you should wait to aerate until it has greened up. Aerating when grass is under stress can cause more harm.

You can also add a thin layer of compost in the spring or fall. This adds nutrients into the soil to help give your grass some extra nourishment. This should be done after aerating.

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Go long

Raising the height of your lawnmower blade is another way to help your grass during dry times.

When grass is longer, the extra height helps shade the soil, so the ground doesn’t dry out as fast. You can also take a little break and not mow as often to let the grass grow a little higher than normal to get the same effect.

The Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado, along with landscape experts at Colorado State University's Extension, recommend Kentucky bluegrass be cut to a height of 2.5 to 3 inches throughout the growing season. However, during dry conditions, you can raise the mower blade to 3 to 4 inches off the ground.

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Landscape transformation

If there are large patches of brown grass in your lawn, that may be a sign that perhaps Kentucky bluegrass isn’t the best option for that part of the yard. Check out our Do It Yourself video series at Denver Water’s YouTube channel that walks you through the steps of removing grass and planting water-wise plants.

Keep in mind that Kentucky bluegrass is not native to Colorado. In fact, it needs around 32 inches of precipitation annually to stay green, but Denver only receives around 15 inches of moisture each year. That’s why picking climate-appropriate plants is so important, especially in dry years.

Head-to-head coverage

We’re not talking about a big sports matchup; instead, head-to-head coverage is ensuring that your sprinkler heads are spaced correctly so that the water from each sprinkler overlaps a little bit with the other sprinklers. This provides full coverage over the entire lawn and prevents some spots from getting missed.

“A lot of times people see a brown spot and think they just need to water longer, but in reality, the brown spot simply isn’t getting enough water because of a coverage problem,” Krcmarik sad. “In this case, even if you watered for an hour, that spot still wouldn’t get the water it needs, so it’s important to make sure your sprinklers are set up correctly.”

Heat of the day

Landscape experts stress the importance of not watering your grass between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. This avoids watering during the heat of the day to prevent evaporation. It’s okay to water at night without worrying about mildew because of Colorado’s low humidity.

Watch the weather

Don’t forget to turn off your sprinklers when it rains — even if it is your designated watering day.

Your lawn is getting a free drink from Mother Nature, so there’s no need to water, and skipping a day of watering will help stretch our water supply. Check to see if your irrigation controller has a rain sensor that monitors weather and will automatically turn off during wet weather.

Don’t ‘set it and forget it’

Lawn experts say people often set their irrigation controllers once at the beginning of summer and then forget about them, which can lead to overwatering their grass throughout the season.

Krcmarik says it’s important to understand how your controller works, make sure it’s functioning properly and set for the new watering run times and correct days. It’s also important to adjust the times throughout the summer.

Another common issue is just thinking that more water is the solution to lawn problems.

“All too often, instead of fixing problems and properly setting your irrigation controller to be efficient, people just run more water than their grass really needs in hopes that will solve their problem,” Krcmarik said.

“We hope this current drought will encourage our customers to really spend some time looking at their yard, adjusting their controllers and making improvements that will help not only this year, but also down the road.”

What about new grass seeds, plants and trees?

Denver Water encourages planting water-wise plants, trees and native grasses even during drought and watering restrictions.

“Water-wise plants require additional water at first to help them get established, but we believe that the long-term water savings makes it okay to plant this year,” Krcmarik said.

If you are planting a new Kentucky bluegrass lawn, native grass seed or a tree, you’ll need to apply for a watering establishment permit.

If you see water waste, fill out our Report Water Waste form online or call 303-893-2444 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.