Overwatered Your Grass? We’re Here to Help
Your yard requires water to thrive. But how often do you need to water your lawn to keep it looking lush and green?
Can you overwater grass? When do you know you’re using too much water on grass?
Too much water can be damaging to your lawn, wreaking havoc on its overall health and appearance.
If you think you may be overwatering your lawn, follow along as we walk you through the amount of water your landscape needs, what happens when you overwater grass, how to identify overwatering, and how to treat overwatered grass.
Why is Overwatered Grass a Big Deal?
All that water drowns your grass and leads to dead spots in your lawn! By filling up the space between soil particles, your grass has no room to breathe. Plus, it discourages deep (and healthy) root systems from forming.
What Happens When You Overwater Grass
When there is an influx of water in the ground, it fills up all the space between the soil particles, resulting in lowered oxygen levels in the soil — suffocating your grass!
Along with depleting the oxygen, watering your lawn too often can also stunt root growth. The presence of water in the soil means that your grass is not encouraged to build a deep root system to find water, leaving you with a shallow root system that is more susceptible to problems such as drought and disease.
Identifying Overwatered Grass
Are you worried that your landscape is being overwatered? Here are a few warning signs that you may be overwatering your lawn.
Water Runoff – Have you noticed that heavy rain runs right off your lawn onto the driveway or sidewalk? If your lawn isn’t absorbing water, it may be because the soil is filled with water and can’t absorb any more.
Thatch – When your lawn has a top layer of thatch, which is decomposed plant material, it may be a sign of overwatering. If thatch builds up in your landscape, it can suffocate your grass by limiting the amount of oxygen getting to it.
Spongy Footing – If your lawn feels squishy beneath your feet or you’ve noticed standing water in puddles, it is a telltale sign of overwatering. When this water builds up, it depletes the number of nutrients your soil is receiving which leads to discoloration.
Fungus – Too much moisture in your lawn creates the perfect environment for fungus to thrive. As a result, too much watering can lead to fungal growth that can be detrimental to the health of your lawn.
Weeds – Have weeds started popping up all over your yard? Certain types of weeds, including crabgrass and yellow nutsedge, flourish in wet environments, which can disrupt your soil’s surface.
Insects – Bugs often flock to wet environments, so if your backyard has become waterlogged you may notice an influx in pests.
How to Treat Overwatered Grass
If you’ve noticed any of the warning signs listed above, you may be experiencing an overwatered lawn. That may leave you questioning how to treat overwatered grass.
The first step is to cut back on how much and how often you’re watering your grass. While you don’t want to stop watering your lawn, you need to determine the adequate amount of water for your lawn that is specific to your landscape, climate, and season.
Next, assess whether your waterlogged lawn created thatch buildup or fungal growth. If so, treat these problems by applying a fungicide to your landscape and removing excess thatch buildup.
Then, you will also want to use pesticides to remove any bugs that have decided to take up shop in your yard. Be sure to use environmentally safe options that don’t harm your lawn.
Lastly, once these landscape issues have been treated, you should fertilize your yard to provide it with the nutrients it needs to revive it back to good health.
How Sprinklers Prevent Overwatering
By utilizing an irrigation system to water your yard, you’ll be able to set the specific duration you’d like the sprinklers to run. This ensures you more successfully monitor the amount of water your yard is receiving.
Plus, well-placed sprinkler heads will prevent water from pooling in one area of your landscape. Instead, they’ll be evenly dispersed throughout the yard so each part of your lawn receives the right amount of water to flourish.
Commercial Lawn Irrigation provides professional sprinkler installation services for the Southern Illinois area. We’ll not only install your sprinkler system but also program the run times to meet the specific needs of your yard! If you’re interested in a free installation estimate, fill out the contact form by clicking the button below.
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This is an in depth question—so much so that we’ve written a separate post about watering new grass seed.
In short, new grass requires very frequent watering to properly germinate, but yes, you can still overwater it to the point where you’re harming its growth! -
This is a trip-up we frequently see from homeowners! Typically when you see dead brown spots, they think it requires more water when the opposite is true.
Yes, overwatering can lead to brown patches in your lawn, and continuing to pour water onto the area will make matters worse. -
Absolutely! With enough care and patience, you can nurture this area of your lawn back to health.
Saving your overwatered grass will first require you to cut back on watering the affected area. You’ll then have to evaluate its individual needs, including any fertilization or anti-fungal measures.
In short, the best way to save your overwatered grass is to reprogram your sprinkler to cut down watering on that section of your lawn and then treat it individually to nurse it back to health.