Video: How to Plant a Drought-Friendly Lawn

CONCORD — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you’re torn between planting a lawn and conserving water, you’ll be glad to know there’s a way to do both. Today we’re in Concord with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Paul Singh of Natural Landscaping Contractors to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Paul Singh: So, I will go over how to establish a lawn that’s drought-friendly. Most people are concerned about water conservation with the current drought. And a lawn is one of those things that a lot of people still want to have. It does take water, but there are things you can do so you can make a drought-friendly lawn. So, the main thing is during the installation process there are steps that need to be taken to make sure that the lawn is a healthy lawn. It has less work.

During the installation process there’re four things you want to really pay attention to. You want to keep the lawn as level as possible, so there is not too much water run-off. Try to keep the slope no more than 2% on the lawn, to avoid the water run-off. During the installation process you want to make sure the soil is prepped properly, at least 4 to 6” of depth of soil preparation, you want to add some compost to it. And once installed, you also want to make sure the sprinklers are covering the entire area, so you have no dry spots. Once the lawn is established, the initial cut, it’s very important to give it at least three to four weeks. It takes about 28 days for the lawns to completely grow their roots. So, that initial part is very important because the deeper the roots are, the more drought-friendly the lawn’s going to be.

And the ongoing things are watering the lawn, keep it on a schedule. Typically three to four times a week is enough. You would normally use either rotary heads or static sprinkler heads. Rotary seems to work better. They have a little bit more flexibility as far as adjusting-wise. They also water slowly. So, the soil has a better chance for the water to actually get saturated into the soil.

The last thing is fertilization. It typically happens three to four times a year. The lawn needs it. And it’s something that really gets, you know, forgotten by most people. The other couple of things are aeration and patching. Patching you might have to do twice a year. Aeration could be once a year or once every other year. Hopefully, I have given you some tips and useful information to make a drought-friendly lawn.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.