Think about the health of your tall fescue lawn before you water. Watering habits go a long way toward the growth and condition of your lawn.
Fescue is relatively drought-tolerant, but it should be watered during the summer to keep it green. Unless the lawn begins to wilt, avoid watering in the spring. Spring watering reduces summer drought resistance and contributes to excessive growth, disease, and weeds. During dry summer weather water once or twice a week, applying a total of 1 to 11 ⁄2 inches. Morning is best. In the fall, water every other week if the weather is dry. A good soaking before winter is also helpful. Apply water at a rate that can be absorbed by the soil. Sprinklers vary in how fast they apply water. To check the application rate place several flat-bottomed, straight-sided containers on the lawn and turn the water for an hour. The average height, in inches, of water collected in the containers is the application rate in inches per hour. It tells how long to run the sprinkler to apply a given amount of water. Avoid watering every day or even every other day, except for a newly seeded lawn. Besides wasting water, frequent watering leads to shallow roots, disease, and weeds.
