Should I Water My Lawn After Mowing?

Mowing and watering your lawn are probably the two most important things you can do when it comes to maintaining it. Neglect either of these two core activities and you’re likely to notice the condition of your grass deteriorate over time. Lawn disease, discoloring and even dead grass are all consequences you might face. It won’t be pretty to look at.

If you’re pushed for time or are just looking to do right by your lawn, you may have wondered “should I water my lawn after mowing?” After all, you can pretty much kill two birds with one stone, right? And it’s a valid question to ask.

So Tell Me Then…Should I Water My Lawn After Mowing or Not?

You certainly can water your lawn after mowing. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the best time to water your grass. It’s not something that is completely unadvisable, like watering before you mow (which can cause grass clippings to clump and stick to the mower deck, making mowing effectively much harder), and there will be instances when you should water after mowing, which we’ll talk more about below.

The One Situation When You Absolutely Should Water Your Lawn After Mowing

There are numerous scenarios when it isn’t the best idea to give your lawn a drink after mowing, which we’ll cover further down the page. But there is one situation when it’s always a good idea to water your grass…

Picture this. It’s early morning, and you’ve decided to get your day started by mowing the lawn. You start up the mower no problem, steadily work your way around the yard, before shutting off your mower to admire your handy work. But after you take off the grass catcher and walk over to your yard waste container, as turn back towards your mower, you notice a trail of footprints that have been left behind in your grass. This is a sure sign that your grass is dry and could do with some water. And because it’s still early in the day, now is a great time to give it what it needs.

So to summarize. When it’s the early part of the day AND your lawn shows signs of being dry/needing water, you absolutely should water your lawn after you’re finished mowing.

Times When You’d Be Wise Not to Water After You’ve Finished Mowing

There are certain times of the day and circumstances when watering your lawn can do more harm than good. So in each of the following situations, the answer to the question of “Should I water my lawn after mowing?” would be NO!

• You’re Mowing in the Heat of the Day – This really applies more in the summer period, and chances are, you probably avoid mowing when the sun is at its highest anyway. But if you’re one of those crazy folks that resist the heat well and you do find yourself out on your lawn when the temperatures are soaring, you’ll want to leave your lawn sprinkler turned off afterward. Why is this a bad time to water? Well, the high temperatures will cause a lot of the water to evaporate before your grass has the chance to have a good drink. This bumps your water costs up, without any real benefit to your lawn.
• You’re Mowing in the Evening – If the only time your schedule allows you to mow is in the evening, put watering off until another day. Watering at this time can cause almost the opposite problem to the previous point. As the temperatures drop and the sun disappears, any excess water that isn’t absorbed by your grass will just sit there, providing ideal conditions for fungal lawn problems, like mold and mildew.
• Your Lawn is Already Well Hydrated – If you’ve been following a regular watering schedule and your lawn isn’t dry and in need of water, then don’t water it. An overwatered lawn is just as bad as an underwatered lawn and can cause issues with shallow rooting or even potentially the fungal problems mentioned in the last point if it’s not particularly hot outside (if winter, late fall or early spring, for example).

Signs That Your Lawn Needs Watering

The rules regarding how the time of day affects whether you should water after mowing or not are fairly straightforward to follow. But how do you tell if your lawn is dried out and in need of water?
In addition to the “footprint check” that we described earlier, there are a couple of other quick tests that you can do to check whether your lawn is in need of water or not.

• Do You See Gaps? – Your lawn is rather like a sponge. When the soil is dry, it actually shrinks. And this is a definite indicator that it needs watering. How do you spot this? Well, you need to walk around the edges of your lawn, looking for a gap between the edge of your patio, pathways or driveway and your lawn. That’s a sign that the soil has contracted and needs water. If well hydrated, these gaps won’t be there.
• The Screwdriver Test – This’ll only take a minute. Grab a screwdriver (ideally one that has a shaft of 5-6 inches long), kneel down on your lawn and try and push it into the ground. If it’s easy to do, then you probably don’t need to water the lawn. But if it’s challenging to push the screwdriver down or you can’t do it at all, it’s a sure sign that your lawn is wayyyyy too dry and needs a good watering ASAP.

Setting Up a Lawn Watering Schedule is Best Thing You Can Do

What we normally recommend to people is to not make a habit of watering after you mow. Put together a basic watering schedule (whereby you water on days when you’re not mowing) and make sure you stick to it. By all means though, if you notice that your grass is dry as you mow, do water it afterward. But this should really be a supplement rather than your default time to water your grass.