As sometimes happens in the Front Range of Colorado, a mid-summer rainy period has cooled down temperatures and given us some much needed moisture. While this is great for those of us who live here and will help both the lawn and landscape planting, the few days of rain means a possible change in how we care for our lawns.
A heavy rainfall is not a reason to completely stop watering. Skipping a watering day or two is perfectly fine, but rain water does not stick around long in the Denver Metro Area.
As you consider the need to water or not, keep in mind we live in an environment with normally very low humidity levels. Because of this, once the rain moves out it does not take long for the ground to dry out. With humidity levels dropping down into the low twenty percent range, rain is quickly pulled back up into the atmosphere. As an example, take a look at how quickly the streets dry once the rains stop. The exact same thing starts to happen to lawns and landscape plantings.
While the weather has given us a nice break, and it is not necessary to water in the day or two after the type of rains we received on July 29th and July 30th, it will not take long for both the yard and the landscape to need normal watering again. Even those who have yards with water sensors need to keep an eye out for dry spots in the hotter and sunnier areas of their lawns.
If you do shut your system off because of the weather, don’t forget about it. Double check to make sure you turn you system back on and then verify it is coming on as expected. After every rainy period there are always people who end up with drought damage because either they left their sprinkler off or their sprinklers didn’t come back on with the full programming.
As always the Lawn, Tree, and Landscape professionals at Mountain High are available to help should a problem arise, however, with just a few minutes to give your sprinkler system a once over, many problems can be avoided before there are extra cost involved to repair drought damage.
Lee Kral, Lawn Care Manager