Community Corner

Skip a Week of Watering to Help Your Lawn

"Overwatering can encourage pests and disease in your lawn," said Robin Grantham, Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ project manager. "Too much irrigation can also make lawns less able to survive droughts."

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is reminding residents who irrigate their lawns to “Skip a Week” or more of watering during the cooler months of January and February.

According to research by the University of Florida, grass doesn’t need to be watered as often during the cooler months. One-half to three-quarters of an inch of water every 10–14 days is sufficient. In fact, if your lawn has received any significant rainfall, then you can turn off your irrigation system and operate it manually as needed.

“Overwatering can encourage pests and disease in your lawn,” said Robin Grantham, Florida-Friendly Landscaping project manager. “Too much irrigation can also make lawns less able to survive droughts.”

Find out what's happening in Clearwaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Skipping a week of watering is as easy as “off” for residents with irrigation timers. “Turn the timer to ‘off’ for the week that you want to skip, and ‘on’ for the week that you want to water,” said Grantham.

You can determine when your grass needs water when:

Find out what's happening in Clearwaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Grass blades are folded in half lengthwise on at least one-third of your yard.
  • Grass blades appear blue-gray.
  • Grass blades do not spring back, leaving footprints on the lawn for several minutes after walking on it. 

Watering only every other week at most during the winter will help conserve drinking water supplies that the public needs for critical uses during the dry season. In fact, if everyone skipped one week of irrigation this season, it could save an estimated 1.9 billion gallons of water.

For additional information about water restrictions and water conservation, please contact your local utility or visit the District’s website at Skip a Week

Want the news delivered to your email box every morning? Subscribe to the Clearwater Patch newsletter. Sign up here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here