CONCORD — Due to the recent drought, many California residents are opting to replace their lawns with more drought-tolerant alternatives like rock gardens and synthetic turf. However, some homeowners aren’t as enthusiastic about the prospect of giving up the soft, lush lawns to which they’ve grown accustomed. If this is the case for you, there’s good news: By following a few simple guidelines, you can install a lawn that consumes far less water than the average.
1. Get the lawn area as level as possible, maintaining a slope of no more than 2 percent to minimize water run-off.
2. Before installing your turf, make sure the soil is properly prepared. Add compost and till the soil to a minimum depth of four to six inches.
3. Install sprinklers around the entire area of the lawn to avoid any dry spots. Rotary sprinkler heads are a better choice than static heads: they have more flexibility for adjustments and emit water more slowly, which reduces water loss by giving the soil a better chance to absorb it.
4. Once installed, give your lawn three to four weeks to become fully established. It typically takes about 28 days for the turf roots to grow to a mature length. This is crucial, because the deeper the roots, the less water your lawn will require.
5. Once your lawn is established, keep it on a tight irrigation schedule—in most cases, three to four watering sessions per week is adequate. To avoid overwatering, establish a clear idea of how much your lawn really needs.
6. Fertilize your lawn three to four times a year, and patch and aerate it at regular intervals. By taking proactive measures before, during and after installing your lawn, you’ll be able to minimize its water consumption without diminishing its aesthetic qualities.

How to Establish a Drought-Friendly Lawn

Learn essential tips and techniques for establishing a drought-tolerant lawn, saving water and maintaining a healthy, sustainable landscape.

How to Establish a Drought-Friendly Lawn by Paul Singh

by Paul Singh, a Diamond Certified Expert Contributor

Video: How to Plant a Drought-Friendly Lawn

 If you're torn between planting a lawn and conserving water, you'll be glad to know there's a way to do both. Today we're in Concord with Diamond Certified expert contributor Paul Singh of Natural Landscape Contractors to learn more. So, I would go over how to establish a lawn that's drought-friendly. Many people are concerned about water conservation with the current drought, and a lawn is one of those things that a lot of people still want to have. It does take water, but there are things you can do so you can make a drought-friendly lawn.

The main thing is during the installation process, there are steps that need to be taken to make sure that the lawn is a healthy lawn. It has less work. During the installation process, there are four things you want to pay attention to. You want to keep the lawn as level as possible so there is not too much water runoff. Try to keep the slope no more than two percent on the lawn to avoid the water runoff. During the installation process, you want to make sure the soil is prepped properly. At least four to six inches of depth of soil preparation. You want to add some compost to it. And once installed, you also want to make sure the sprinklers are covering the entire area so you have no dry spots.

Once the lawn is established, the initial cut is very important. To give it at least three to four weeks. It takes about 28 days for the lawns to completely grow the roots. So, that initial part is very important because the deeper the roots are, the more drought-friendly the lawn's gonna be. And the ongoing things are watering the lawn. Keep it on a schedule, typically three to four times a week is enough. You would normally use either rotary heads or static sprinkler heads. Rotary seems to work better, they have a little bit more flexibility as far as adjusting. They also water slowly so the soil has a better chance for the water to actually get saturated into the soil.

The last thing is fertilization. It typically happens three to four times a year. Lawn needs it, something that really gets forgotten by most people. The other couple of things are aeration and thatching. You might have to do that twice a year, aeration could be once a year or once every other year. Hopefully, I've given you some tips and useful information to make your lawn drought-friendly. To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org. 

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