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| LIFE IN SOLERA | DECEMBER 2023 | 11 Many residents overwater their lawns by huge amounts. If you are a morning stroller, I am sure you have seen "rivers" of water streaming down gutters (photo 1). It is easy to follow these streams back to the culprit homeowners. Another sign of over-watering is rust-colored, water stained curbs (photo 2). The table below is my offering of suggested lawn watering – and rationale - to both conserve water and still sport attractive, healthy lawns. My watering tips are based upon 20 years' experience living in Solera. I urge residents to cut out this table and pin it to your water controller. Note that in this table I suggest the need to watch the weather for adjustment to recommendations. Not knowing how to program the watering controller just might be part of the water-wasting problem. Call me (Richard Crowe) with questions at (951) 769-1580. Important to understand about Solera's fescue grass, soil, achieving vigorous/healthy grass to explain the above recommendations: 1. Our Solera soil is clay. Water penetrates clay soil very slowly; therefore applying all the necessary water at one time (one cycle) on grass, especially in summer, will result in water running off to the street. Watering grass with our clay soil requires two or three watering periods (cycles) on watering days each separated by an hour or so to allow all the applied water to adequately penetrate the soil. 2. Our Pulte-installed water controllers (and most other brands in case you have a new controller) are designed to allow three watering cycles per day. 3. Pulte-installed grass is hybrid fescue. Fescue is not the most nor least drought tolerant grass. The suggested monthly watering on the table above is geared for our hybrid fescue and based upon years of grass watering experience. 4. Fescue will grow and look better and be more drought resistant if we 1) water deeply on watering days, and 2) space out watering days (e.g., Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) so grass roots 'chase" water to deeper depth as the shallower zone dries out, and 3) set mowing height on the lawn mower to the highest cutting point, 3" to 4". Taller grass promotes longer roots. 5. Suggested spaced watering times are 3:30 am, 5:30 am, and 7:30 am. Grass should not be watered in early night, especially in the summer, as fungi and other diseases can damage grass during long, warm, damp (just watered) periods. Grass should not be watered mid-day, either, as the hot sun and breezes will evaporate some of the water before it can penetrate the soil. 6. Adjust table recommendations for periods of weather anomalies: abnormal wet/dry periods and abnormal temperatures. 7. Other considerations: a. Residents who use hired lawn service people should not allow those people to program your controllers otherwise; and tell them to adjust their lawn-mower cutting height per above. b. Better watering may cause areas of grass brownout due to poor sprinkler spacing so you may need to add more sprinklers. By Richard Crowe Solera Grass Watering SUGGESTED WATERING FOR SOLERA HOMES WITH ORIGINAL FESCUE GRASS LAWNS *i.e., the number of times per day water is applied 1 2

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