Drought can be a very big problem that affects the overall health and appearance of your lawn. Learning how to recognize and treat drought in its early stages can save you time, money, and your lawn.

These are the stages of drought:

• Temporary drought results from a lack of moisture for up to a week. It is characterized by a dark grayish hue. To identify temporary drought, look for a dirty green that doesn’t spring back quickly when stepped upon. You can confirm dryness by probing the soil with a screwdriver or a butter knife. If it is relatively hard to push in and moist soil doesn’t stick to the probe, it’s too dry.
• Permanent drought comes from an extended period (a week or more) of no moisture and is easily identified by brown or straw-colored blades.
• A history of drought is the final phase and is recognized by a dry area with sparse plant growth.

1. Temporary drought: Notice the dark smoky color in the center of the image in contrast to the healthy green grass around.

2. Transition: This is how your lawn may look in a later stage of temporary drought. It hasn’t yet passed the point of no return.

3. Permanent drought: Characterized by dead blades and a straw color, this stage will require new growth for green to be restored to this part of the lawn.

4. A history of drought: Dirt is all that remains. There is some new growth emerging.

The 3 most common reasons for drought and what to do about it

#1 – Uneven Watering

While it is possible that when your sprinkler system was installed, it was fairly even, over time the weather and other external forces cause sprinklers to self adjust. This becomes readily apparent as the weather starts to dry in late spring, where you will see signs of drought in certain areas.

Solution: To fix this problem, take the following steps:

1. Place several containers of the same size and shape around your coverage area to catch the sprinkler water.
2. After a good watering, observe each container to see where coverage is high and where it is low. This will help you determine which areas are not being reached as well.
3. Take this knowledge and adjust the sprinklers to better water the dryer areas. (Use a hose sprinkler to augment watering in dry areas until sprinkler system is adjusted)
4. Repeat these steps until you have restored an even coverage.

#2 – Shallow Watering

It is logical to assume that if your lawn is dry, more water is required. That statement is true up to a certain point. I mean, hey, if your lawn is dry while watering it every day, it makes sense to water it twice a day right? Well no, not really. Frequent, 15 minute bursts of watering keep it very shallow. This allows other players to steal it from your lawn, like the sun or new, germinating weeds. It may not be that your grass isn’t getting enough water, but that their roots are missing out in what’s needed. By the time the water finally gets past the crown and into the roots, the sprinklers are turned off, thus resulting in drought.

Solution: Water deeply and as needed. We recommend about ten inches of moist soil before you stop watering. Not only does this reserve more of the water for the grass roots, it also causes them to delve deep into the soil, giving you a healthier, greener lawn!

#3 – Uneven Drying

Some areas of your lawn may dry quicker because of more sunlight or sandy or rocky soil. This could cause those areas to go into drought while the rest of your lawn remains healthy.

Solution: Augment your watering so it covers those areas more deeply. If this is not possible, water your whole lawn very deeply 2-3 times a week.