Hi again Monica,

Bermuda is tolerant of some drought but St. Augustine grass needs more water and is a faster grower, more frequent mowings and is good for crowding out weeds. But of course, the more water the better the grass does up to a point. The general rule is one inch of water a week for lawns. Hotter climates need more and cooler climates need less. The following is a good method to find the time your system needs to run to supply that amount or any amount for that matter:

Place cups or glasses or any containers that won't fall over during irrigation of your lawn. You can place a weight in the container if necessary but take it out when measuring. Place containers out in your lawn. Place them in area you suspect is getting too much or too little water. The more cups the more knowledge you will gain. Start your irrigation system and run it for a good period of time it really doesn't matter how long except to get a good amount of water in the containers. Draw a diagram of your lawn with locations of the cups and the measures depth of the water in each cup in inches. Choose either the driest spot or the average of all the spots to calculate the inch per time of your system. Divide the time to obtain an inch a week into the days you want to water per week. Then observe if the grass needs more or does well with less. Trial and error is knowledge. Hope this helped. Aloha

hello Monica,

I just moved into a house with irrigation and had the same questions. After a bunch of research, I ended up doing what lehua said.

I put down little dishes all over the yard and then ran all the zones for 10 minutes each. The only thing I did was make sure the dishes had flat bottoms. When it was done, I ran around with a ruler and measured. Most of mine measured 1/4" with a few measuring only 1/2". I then used this info to set my zones... 20 minutes for those that where only 1/4" and 10 minutes for those that were 1/2". This meant that every time I turned on the sprinklers, the whole yard got 1/2".

I set my sprinkler up to water 1 day a week. I start at 4 am and then again at 7:30 (after we leave for work). This leaves about 1.5 hours to give the water a chance to soak in before I water the second time, and it gives me 1". So far it's been working really well.

I don't set mine to water the same day every week, but I do keep track of the last time I watered. If the grass is starting to look dry and it's been a week or so, then I set the sprinkler to water the next morning.

Hi niget,

It is the least expensive system I know using household items and gives you very good and reliable information to the detail you want for a homeowner. Another piece of the system is but entails more work is checking how deep the water reaches per time for your yard soil. This give you details for timing between several waterings and how to accomplish deep soakings for increasing root depth for your soil type. Aloha