[Plexer2]

I am a snowbird. Currently in Massachusetts. My latest lawn service report stated that the lawn was being over watered. Just got my bill from VCDD, showing 9400 gallons was put on the lawn during the last month. Is that high, compared to some of you? Just curious. Thanks for any input.

[Cassie325]

http://www.thevillageswaterwisdom.com/


This is a GREAT website and will give you the best information plus contacts at the water authority. They will come out for free to check your water system....

I think that 9400 is a little high from my memory....I believe they said about 6-7 k was about right....but I could be wrong....

[villages07]

Plex,

On my latest bill, we used 9800 gallons....watering once a week. This past billing cycle would have included 5 watering days with how the calendar/reading date occurred. We haven't had much rain, so, I'm sure we watered each week.

Just last week I cut watering times back a bit for the fall/winter seasons.

We have a fairly large lot (approx 9500 sq ft) and you need to factor that into any comparisons. We also have empire zoysia. St Augustine may required different amounts of water.

Did your lawn service say what symptoms you had that made them think it was overwatered?

Hope this helps...

[captain1202]

University of Florida recommends 3/4"-1" of water per week for St Aug. grass. This of course includes rain. The ONLY way to properly determine what your lawn is getting is to physically measure the amount being put on the lawn by using gauge cups. Run the zone for 15 minutes and multiply the results by 4 for hrly rate.

The usage is determined by many factors including the size of the nozzles in the irrigation heads as well as the length of time of watering.
Our grass area is about 8000sf and 1"/week translates into about 15000 gals/mo.

We have been monitoring rainfall closely and adjusting watering times accordingly.

Being absentee, you don't have this option but we have also found that keeping overall watering to a minimum while spot watering manually to attack dry spots keeps overall consumption down as well.

Of course, you could just let it burn up too! Being from New England as well its hard to get your arms around this continuous watering thing.

Personally, I feel this use of a precious resource is a complete waste and I am trying to conserve as much as possible.

[downeaster]

Originally Posted by captain1202

The ONLY way to properly determine what your lawn is getting is to physically measure the amount being put on the lawn by using gauge cups.

Note captain's emphasis on ONLY. There are too many variables to determine water usage any other way.
A lawn maintenance person recently told my neighbor to run her system 20 minutes on each zone without any knowledge of her system. She nearly lost her grass. I "educated" her by placing a rain gauge on her lawn and showing her the results ( about one tenth of an inch).
I checked the sprinkler nozzles and they are low output. I will replace them with larger ones.
Another note, St Augustine grass is easy to read. It will show stress prior to needing water. If it is in contained spots, I water water those spots manually. ( That bit of info is of no use to a snowbird).
BTW, I have a snowbird neighbor whose lawn I care for as diligently as mine.

[captain1202]

A second to "downeaster's" Lawn Maint. comment. These folks while well intentioned are not in a position to make comment about your irrigation unless they maintain the system and have taken the aforementioned measurements.

The people we had initially kept saying we needed to increase the watering. At the time I was watering 45 min per zone, over 1 1/2" per week!!!

I took the readings adjusted my nozzles and times, and canned the maint. people. Did our own fertilizing and bug stuff using Scott's products and our lawn is as good if not better the the professionally maintained ones. BTW I would not recommend liquid fertilizers, granular is THE way to go. A few extra gallons of water in the mix and you have a product of questionable efficacy. Much harder to screw up the granular if applied properly. Of course it takes time to do that right and they'd much rather be at your place for 5 or 10 minutes.

I've concluded that TV is a GIANT magnet for these service people of all types selling annual contracts on questionably needed services to unsuspecting dupes from the north.