Watering Basics#

Lawn watering accounts for nearly half of the water used annually by most homes and up to 70% of water demand on a summer day. Lawns typically get more water than needed. Too much water can be just as damaging as too little.

A lawn loses water through evapotranspiration (ET) and is replenished through rainfall and sprinkling. The ET rate indicates how many inches of water a typical lawn uses through surface evaporation and plant transpiration. ET is calculated based on temperature, humidity, wind and sunshine. Watering guide amounts are based on the ET rate for bluegrass, minus any effective rainfall.

The weekly watering need of lawns in Fort Collins is approximately 1" during May, 1.25" during June, a peak of 1.5" during July, 1.25" during Aug., 1" during Sept., and 0.5" during Oct. Keep in mind that these needs are subject to change with unusual weather.

What about my sprinklers?#

To find out how much water your sprinklers apply to the lawn, sign up for a free sprinkler system checkup. You can also measure sprinkler output for each zone or station with three steps:

1. Randomly place six soup cans of equal size within the spray of the sprinklers.
2. Run the sprinklers for 10 minutes.
3. Pour all the water from the cans into one can and measure the depth of the water. The result is the "inches per hour" that your sprinklers are delivering to that zone.

To find how many minutes it will take to deliver half an inch of water, divide half an inch by the "inches per hour" and multiply by 60. For example, if a zone delivers 2 inches per hour, it would take 15 minutes to apply half an inch.