Keeping Your Lawn Green And Healthy In A Drought

Sometimes it can be tempting to just leave your garden alone during periods of extreme dryness. But it doesn't have to be this way, and it's actually really easy to prepare your lawn for drought. While there are often bans on watering your lawn with your garden hose, it's easy enough to find other options that are just as effective. Wouldn't it be lovely to know that your lawn will be just fine, even if it hasn't rained for weeks?

Alternative Sources Of Water

The trick is to make the most of the rain when it falls. This might not happen so often, so you need to be able to utilise that rainfall at a later stage. Consider installing a rainwater tank, meaning you'll always have a water supply to keep your lawn green and perky.

If you don't want to go down this road, there's always a ready supply of spare water from any household. Simply collect grey water from your shower or laundry to disperse over your lawn with a watering can. Remember to do this after the sun goes down, since beads of water can collect on the grass, which then concentrates the power of the sun like a piece of glass. You could actually damage your lawn by watering at the wrong time. Grey water contains soap and detergent, which subsequently contains phosphorous and nitrogen, which is actually great for vegetation!

Wetting Agents

Your grey water might be more than enough to keep your lawn healthy, and yet, what if the soil is too dry to receive the moisture? It's a common problem in Australia, even for soil that is almost entirely covered in lawn. The sun penetrates through the blades of grass, baking the soil to a hardness that means water will not effectively drain—it simply sits on the surface, or runs off if there happens to be a slope. Consider visiting a garden shop and getting a wetting agent. This product does exactly what the name suggests, and is a compound that is scattered over your grass, altering the soil so that it can effectively accept water.

Change Your Lawn

Perhaps the most effective way to prepare your lawn for drought is also the most extreme. Some grasses just can't cut it when it comes to prolonged sunshine. They might look lovely under the right conditions, but these right conditions simply might not occur often enough in your local area. By replacing your existing lawn with a hardy, drought resistant variety, you can ensure that you won't even need to worry about grey water for your lawn. Kikuyu grass works well in Australia. It thrives even in the most extreme conditions, with a minimum of effort on your part. It's durable and keeps its colour as well, so you won't need to worry about having a lawn that's more brown than green.

It takes a little work to keep your lawn green during periods of extreme heat, but it's worth the effort. However, if you're not a fan of lawncare, maybe it's time to replace your lawn with one that can essentially look after itself! For more information, contact a company like Brook Turf.