Have I damaged my new turf?

[BasinHaircut]

Had a new lawn laid yesterday. Guy said to put the sprinkler on it for an hour each evening for the first week. We put it on at 7:30 tonight and then forgot about it, so it's had 3 hrs watering!

I'm a gardening virgin and I am worried that I've ruined the turf. Will it be ok? Should we maybe skip the watering tomorrow to compensate?

[Methe]

It'll be fine :)

[AlternativeTentacles]

Oh no, turfs have never before been rained on for more than an hour - eek!

It will be fine

[iwouldgoouttonight]

It'll be fine, much better to over-water than under-water. It could have rained on it for longer than three hours and there would have been nothing you could do about that! I'd water it again tonight as normal.

[BasinHaircut]

Phew! Thanks.

So definately water tonight?

[iwouldgoouttonight]

Yep if it's not rained all day definitely water. It's been really warm and sunny here today so if you've had similar weather the turf will need as much watering as you can for the first few days.

[Ferguson]

Much better to have TOO MUCH water at first, but not enough water can be fatal for young lawns.

[BasinHaircut]

Thanks. It had beeniserable here all day but not really rained much so we watered.

Any tips on stopping the neighbourhood cars from digging it up? The bastards!

[BasinHaircut]

Cats, not cars! And that other word is supposed to be miserable.

[shovetheholly]

If it's a small area, you could put a few small twiggy branches on it to keep the cats off without excluding too much light. But move them every day when you water, or it will go yellow underneath. Or you can buy a cat scarer if you're really worried or if it's larger.

[BasinHaircut]

I've bought a sonic thingy, fingers crossed it works!

I'm so annoyed they have been pulling the turf back and digging underneath. Lots of dips now in my previously flat new lawn!

[MoreBeta]

Just had new turf laid. Make sure you water the edges. Don't worry about watering too much as long as you don't flood it every day.

[BasinHaircut]

more I think the sprinkler is getting the edges, or do you think we should go round and do it by hand to make sure? Does it need extra watering at the edge?

Ive been doing round a tree by hand as the sprinkler obviously cant get under there properly.

The sonic thingy appears to have worked. Last night none of the turf was dug up. Although one of the cats seem to have left us a dirty protest on the patio.

[MoreBeta]

Basin - I tend to water round the edges by hand and put less in the middle. Even now some 8 weeks after the lawn was laid I noticed tonight it is getting a bit brown near the edge even though the middle is lush.

The drying wind and hot sun of this week has quickly dried it out. Don't let up on watering for quite a long time.

[BasinHaircut]

Thanks more!

We keep putting the sprinkler on and forgetting so it's getting plenty of water just now!

I did the corners tonight, but not all of the edges. Will have a bit more time tomorrow so will do the edges.

[likalixer]

Grass is tougher than you think!
Last year when we had that really hot weather, our lawn was completely brown and looked as if it had died. But it soon recovered.