Tips for measuring your lawn's health

Follow three tips to determine the health of your lawn and to make sure it gets proper hydration.

• The easiest way to do this is to contact your local soil-testing laboratory for information about testing and conducting a soil test. They will tell you how to collect the soil sample and what the analysis costs. You can find one online or ask a nearby garden centre or university to recommend a private soil-testing lab.
• In addition to determining the pH (acidity/alkalinity) of your soil, the test will let you know what nutrients can be added to your soil to improve grass or plant growth. Do-it-yourself soil-test kits and electronic soil-testers are also widely available, although their results are not as comprehensive as a professional test.
• Landscaping professionals recommend having the soil around your property tested every one to three years to adequately monitor growing conditions. Test soil in late fall or early spring to maximize the benefits of any needed adjustments.
• Most testing facilities provide instructions for collecting a soil sample. For lawns, the procedure is essentially the same everywhere.

• Use a clean trowel and bucket (chemical residue will affect the results of the test). Collect the sample when the ground is slightly moist, not wet.
• For small lawns, randomly select at least five locations to sample; for larger plots, select 10 to 15 locations.
• Scrap away any debris, and insert the trowel five to eight centimetres (two to three inches) for an established lawn or 15 centimetres (six inches) for a new lawn. Push on the handle to make a wide opening.
• Use the trowel to take a 25 centimetres (3/4-inch-thick) slice of soil from the side of the opening, extending from top to bottom. Place the soil in the bucket.
• Repeat steps 3 and 4 at all locations. Thoroughly mix the soil in the bucket, then fill the soil-sample bag to the indicated amount.
• Include all requested information on the sample bag before taking it in to be tested.

• Grass should be watered deeply and on an infrequent (but regular) schedule. Most types of grasses need about a 25 millimetres (one inch) of water every week — including rainfall — preferably in one fell swoop rather than frequent, shallow waterings.
• Two exceptions are newly seeded lawns, which need to be kept moist until germination, and grass grown in sandy soil, which tends to do best with two or three waterings of one centimetre (almost a half inch) per week.
• Early morning watering is the way to go, because watering at night can invite fungus and disease and watering during the heat of the day loses more water to evaporation.
• To gauge how long you need to run your sprinkler, scatter several empty tuna cans around the area. Each can holds about an 2.5 centimetres (one inch) of water; when they're full, you'll know that your lawn is adequately saturated.