Are you aware of the fact that your lawn is one of your biggest users of water in the garden? Here are some helpful hints to ensure that you can minimise water consumption, but still keep the lawn in top shape.

Some helpful hints …

Plan a Simple Shape - You can reduce your area covered by lawn by selecting a simple shape and keeping away from the curvy shape. It also makes it easier to irrigate a simple shape without water wastage. Avoid using lawn on steeper slopes, along fences and for narrow walkways, as these are very difficult to maintain.

Plan to Harvest Water - In planning your lawn, shape the area to have a slight hollow in the centre o the lawn. This ensures that you get maximum absorption without run-off, making better use of the rain water to minimise frequency of watering.

Choose the Right Grass - In the winter rainfall areas such as the Western Cape, buffalo grass in the best choice. It is both extremely hardy to diseases and spreads fast. In the summer rainfall areas a choice of kikuyu or indigenous Cynodon species would be the best choice.

Water Effeciently - Deep soakings of water encourage roots to utilise moisture deep in the ground. It is essential that you irrigate lawns less frequently but deeply, especially for this reason, otherwise the roots are concentrated closer to the soil surface and are exposed to a higher soil temperature causing them to dry out faster.

Feed Organically for Longer Term Results - By feeding an organic fertilizer such as Neutrog’s Bladerunner, your lawn will require less water to breakdown the fertilizer and the feeding will last you a longer period. Using organic food will also lessen the chance of burning.

Mow often - Grass is weakened when it grows too long between mowings.

Set your mowing levels at the following :

• Kikuyu: 4 - 6cm
• Cynodon Spp - Fine Grasses: 3 - 4cm
• Cool Season - Evergreen: 5 - 7cm

Scarify - To conserve water in the summer period, cut the lawn a lot shorter and then dress it with a mulch to retain the water for a longer period.