A year long calendar guide to help you with you watering.
The photos above are of my lawn. It’s a mix of common Kikuyu and Village Green Kikuyu with a basic reticulation setup. You can see how the lawn started and progressed in the pictures below.
Most people in Western Australia assume that to get these results, one needs to completely ignore the Water Corporation‘s sprinkler guidelines. Over-watering is wrongly assumed to be a necessary evil to get a beautiful lawn.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Believe it or not, these results came from using LESS water than allowed by the Water Corporation. Read on to discover the schedule I used.
Before we talk about the way I water for WA conditions, you will need to set your sprinklers up to get 10mm of water per station, per watering day. If you don’t know how to do this, this article I wrote will be of help. You will also need to understand how to make the most of your watering; more water does not always mean a better lawn (click here to learn more about that).
Once you have that understood, we can get to a month by month break down.
My Watering Calendar
- January: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent if needed.
- February: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent if one was not applied in January.
- March: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm for the first 2 weeks. Once a week for the rest of the month if needed.
- April: Sprinklers off. On occasion, one full watering day may be needed if there hasn’t been enough rain but this is unlikely.
- May: Sprinklers off.
- June: Sprinklers off.
- July: Sprinklers off.
- August: Sprinklers off.
- September: Sprinklers off.
- October: Watering a full 10mm but 1 day per week is typically enough. Up to 2 days may be required if temperatures are regularly over 30 degrees or if you see any wilting. Apply a high quality wetting agent and core aerate your lawn at the start of the month.
- November: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm.
- December: Watering 2 days a week, full 10mm. A few sessions of hand watering may be needed if temperatures are regularly above 35 degrees. Apply a high quality wetting agent at the start of the month.
Other things to consider
Please note that this is to be used as a guide only. Some months may be hotter and drier than expected, so use common sense if you see any signs or heat stress like wilting or discolouration. In addition, this schedule will not work if you have broken sprinklers or clogged reticulation. Regular driving on the lawn, infrequent mowing or bad fertiliser practices all may have additional negative impacts on the health of your lawn.
If all of this seems like too much work for you, we are here to help. Contact Silverstone Gardening to organise a quote from one of our experienced and qualified gardeners
