Sidewalk Watering??? (Cary: home, live, yard)

[bekindtoanimals]

Just wish that people who water the lawn would do it right(Morning is best) and avoid excess run-off and remember the concrete does not need water

[CHTransplant]

Many town water use restrictions already address this. In Orange County, for example, the OWASA rules state:

Irrigation flow onto adjacent property or public right-of-way, or streets and impervious surfaces is considered water waste and is prohibited.

[Sherifftruman]

Then again, Cary does not allow you to install sprinkler heads in the strip between the sidewalk and the street. Not sure how to avoid having a dead strip in the front of the lawn without getting some on the sidewalk? Luckily, the way the gound is sloped on my yard, any water that does get on the sidewalk runs right into the grass area anyway.

[CalicoskiesNC]

I hate seeing sprinklers waste water on lawns. Fescue goes dormant in the summer. It gets brown and a little crispy. Just let it be, when the temps cool down it comes back green. I know this for a fact, it happens every year with my lawn. We never water our lawn, what a waste of water. You are fighting a losing battle to try and keep a lawn green during the hot summers here. When you water your lawn, you encourage the root system to stay shallow and this will kill your lawn. Not watering forces the roots deeper, the blade above ground goes dormant but not the root.

[zaralia]

There are definitely times when lawns need watering. We completely reseeded ours in the fall and it's still not completely established. We water it as sparingly as possible, but we don't want our work to go to waste. That happened the last time we seeded it--we thought the lawn was well established and decided to quit watering by summer. Weeds completely overtook the lawn and we had to start over again.

[lottamoxie]

I am amazed when I see people watering their lawns in the middle of the day when the heat and sun are at their worst. All that water just evaporates.

Best time is after the sun goes down, anytime during the night, or early morning before 7am. D'OH!

[CHTransplant]

Originally Posted by lottamoxie

I am amazed when I see people watering their lawns in the middle of the day when the heat and sun are at their worst. All that water just evaporates. Best time is after the sun goes down, anytime during the night, or early morning before 7am. D'OH!

Actually the turf experts recommend against evening or nighttime watering. Grass and plants stay wet for longer without the sun to dry them, creating the potential for more fungal growth. Most recommend watering early morning before sunrise.

[CalicoskiesNC]

We reseed in Sept every year, we only water while the seeds are germinating. Once they pop up green, we stop watering. Thats all it takes. They have all fall/winter to establish. If you continue to water frequently your grass will have very shallow root systems which then will cause it to die when you finally ease up on water. If you put out the proper fertilization and weed control, weeds will not overtake a dormant lawn in the summer.

[dansdrive]

Originally Posted by bekindtoanimals

Just wish that people who water the lawn would do it right(Morning is best) and avoid excess run-off and remember the concrete does not need water

I agree but there are a few 'cracks' in the logic. When I lived in a home that had a sidewalk it was necessary to hose it off occasionally to clear the dirt and dust from it. So in this instance a concrete sidewalk did need to be watered.

Also, when cutting a concrete sidewalk water is usually required to cool the carbide tipped saw blade. So once again watering a sidewalk is OK to do.


But watering it to grow more concrete is like pulling all the leaves off a tree and expecting it to grow faster.

All kidding and wet concrete walkways aside I am for not wasting water!

[BradfromNO]

Well then you must not be into birds, cause I can tell you they LOVE little puddles on the sidewalk.
And I am half-serious about that. But it's all in the kind of grass you use, too. I have a St. Augustine
lawn here in Memphis, alot like EVERYONE in Louisiana has, and it takes the heat and dry, man and it is GREEN.
90% of the lawns in Memphis are brown and nasty with patches of dirt, and my shizzle is green
and lush. No watering this year yet. Benefit of St. Augustine is the runners which start as plugs
and can cover a lawn in a season.
Wasting water is always bad nop matter how you go about it.