Should you even bother watering in this heat?

To water or not to water?  That is the question facing many homeowners this hot, dry summer.

If you are opting to water, you will constantly have the hose going as area yards are soaking up whatever moisture they can get.  But is it worth it?  Would it simply be better to just let the heat take hold and let your yard go brown?  That's the approach many a Steinbach homeowner is taking.  Erna Wiebe from Oakridge Greenhouse & Garden Centre says that's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you don't mind a few weeds.

"What happens if we let it dry out so much is that the weeds tend to still thrive and they start taking over more.  So, keeping your grass well watered actually helps choke out some of the weeds, and of course it looks a lot better."

Many homeowners may think that brown grass is dead grass, but Wiebe says that's not the case.

"It would have to be dry a whole lot longer than it has been for it to die.  It'll just go dormant and sit there and wait for some moisture.  Grass is very resilient, lots of root systems and they go very deep so, it'll come back."

But if a brown yard is totally out of the question for you, make sure you're watering at the right time of day.  Wiebe says early mornings and evenings are best.

"Water in the morning because the grass is going to go into a hot, dry day and it quenches the thirst before it even heads into the day.  When watering in the middle of the day, you get a lot of evaporation so that doesn't help as much."

For people with new yards, the sod will require constant watering for the first few weeks, but you can then start to taper it off.

And with it being so dry, no matter what type of yard you have, Wiebe says exercise caution when using chemicals.

"A dry soil, when you add fertilizer to it, it damages the root systems often, depending on what you're using.  If it's a timed-release fertilizer, like a slow-release, it's better but, even that should be watered within 48 hours of putting it down, or even a week of putting it down.  So, you start getting some root burn just from the fertilizer.  If it's this dry and hot, I'd suggest you hold off."