First 2 pics: left side of lawn
3rd pic: right side
My husband hates our yard. So I am actively trying to find solutions since he's not sure what to do.
The right side has always been a bit spotty but nothing major. However in the first pic you can see how muddy a majority of the left side is. As you can see that area stays pretty much shaded all day, lacking direct sunlight.
He has are sprinklers set to go off for 5 minutes 7 days a week at 5:00 a.m.
I feel like our lawn literally never dries. It's just constantly mud. I told him to dial it back on the sprinklers but he says it we'll just kill the rest of the grass.
We do have two dogs that like to run and play. So we have to constantly tell them no to prevent them from making the mud worse.
Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated! I want my husband to like his yard again and for my dogs to be able to play in the backyard without scolding.
by kitkatkrossing
9 Comments
If you’re in the midwest use 100% perennial rye this spring. Its shade tolerant and blends in nicely. I recommend aerating your lawn before seeding.
Instead of watering 5 times a week try lowering it to 3 times but water longer. Deep root watering helps promote root growth and prevent shallow roots. Ideally aim for 25 minutes every other morning. Also try to keep your grass higher—although not very convenient, the grass will be more resistant to your dogs and heat stress
Yeaaa I’m not an expert but dogs running on wet grass will always generate mud.
My best guess would be to change to deep and infrequent watering (not sure what that looks like for your region or grass type) and water 1 or at most 2 times a week so it finishes pre sunrise like you’ve been doing. Then that day don’t have the dogs out until it is dry. If a certain area never dries see about changing sprinkler nozzles to output much less water there or otherwise keeping the dogs off it. Always wet grass is a bad thing outside of swamps.
Watering often and a little bit at a time enables the roots to stay shallow, making them more susceptible to stress from heat, traffic, etc. It could also encourage disease/fungus from not drying out at all.
Watering deeper and less often (1 inch once or twice a week) encourages the roots to grow deeper into the soil, seeking water. This ultimately makes the grass more drought, heat and traffic resistant.
Water less for longer duration. You want it to dry out. Try 30 min once a week, soaking the ground and letting it dry on top promotes root growth.
Treat your grass like any other plant. Unless you just put down seed, there is no reason to water every day. Water every 3 days for 20-30 minutes in the morning, Then give it time to dry a bit before letting your dogs out back.
For the bare spots…throw down some compost, start fertilizer, and seed.
Also with that small of a back yard and dogs running around…the grass will never be perfect.
Try watering for 30 minutes every 3 or 4 days instead
Hey buddy if this is new construction your might want to consider getting it graded. Could be holding water and run off from neighbors. Point too if it is holding water you could dig up the grass and lay more dirt to fill any low spots. It’s easy and cost effective.
Your grass shouldn’t come before your dogs. I like my lawn but I love my dogs, if you’re not allowing you dogs to running around on the grass, maybe they need rehoming somewhere where they’re allowed to do dog things.
One thing to add about running it for a longer duration, but fewer days, you will want to “cycle and soak” on the watering days. What that means is if you want to run it for 30 minutes only a few days per week, break that 30 minutes into two or three start times (your irrigation clock should allow you to do this). 1st start time at 4:30am for 10 minutes only run time. 2nd start time at 5:00am 10 minutes run time. 3rd start at 5:30am 10 minutes run time. This greatly helps reduce runoff that you will experience if you water for 30 minutes straight. It allows the applied water from each cycle to percolate down in the soil before adding more water with the subsequent cycles. And as far as start time, you can even start them at 2 or 3 am to allow even more time for the water to move from the surface before the dogs going out for their morning potty.