I live near Seattle. It’s been kind of a dry spring. I’ve read that the cool weather grasses up here will go dormant if they go too long without water. I am not going to water my entire property, but I have a few areas I’d like to keep green over the summer.
How do I know when it’s time to start watering? Ten days ago I had standing water and sopping wet ground in places, now almost everything is kind of dry.
My soil is glacial till: sandy loam with some rocks.
I’m in the BC Lower Mainland. The geography in the PNW is very diverse. You can have a river bottom field with black mud and a high water table that is green year round, and 5 miles away a hillside field on glacial sand that dries to brown in July.
That said, I’ve never heard of anyone watering a field here. The cool season grasses that thrive up here, Timothy, red top, orchard grass, canary reed grass, rye grass, etc will keep on growing even in harsh urban conditions until they head out and seed in June. I would say your bigger issue with growth falling off is if you let the grass go to seed. If you hay or graze, that won’t happen. If however you overgraze, the grass can also get stressed.
Honestly I would wait until July, make sure the grass doesn’t get to seed our, and evaluate where you are then.
Also talk to your neighbors if they have pasture in the same geological formation.
Puget sound here. I started last week. Water when it’s been dry for over a week usually and it keeps the fields green through the summer
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