Irrigation Crisis: Newly Laid Lawn at Risk Due to Watering Ban

– It has been several months since I ordered it. No one knew what the weather would be like. I didn’t think about the fact that there could be a ban on watering, she says to Dagbladet.

A new lawn should be watered daily for two weeks. Watering during this period is therefore important for the new grass to establish itself.

Anja Leela Hageler’s irrigation crisis is also discussed by Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad and Romerikes Blad.

– Should have notified earlier

According to Hageler, the lawn cost NOK 60,000 and is around 250 square metres. It was laid on 6 June, and the following day Eidsvoll municipality introduced a watering ban as an emergency decision.

– I think that the municipality should have notified earlier, and not just given one day’s notice. Then I could have waited to have the lawn laid, says Hageler.

She asked the municipality for a dispensation, but the application was refused. It is still allowed to water with a watering can, but then Hageler would have walked with the watering can all day, she says.

– Almost disaster

Lawn expert and senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy, Trygve Aamlid, says that Hageler is in a difficult situation.

– It is almost a disaster when it is as hot as it is in the sun now. Newly laid ready-made lawns do not have roots in the soil below and are very sensitive to drying out, says Aamlid to Dagbladet.

When the grass does not get water, the roots will not grow into the soil.

– In exposed places it will simply dry out and die, says Aamlid.

He believes that Hageler and others who laid ready-made lawns just before the watering ban was introduced should be given a dispensation, and that others should avoid laying ready-made lawns in the weather we are having now.

– Large sums can be lost, says Aamlid.

– Took a dramatic turn

– Will make it

Hageler’s solution has become a pump system. She spends a lot of time giving the new lawn enough water, she claims.

– I get to keep the lawn clean. I water late in the evening so that it doesn’t die out. There is a river close to where I live and I use a pump system. Now the lawn looks decent, she says and adds:

– But there will be a few hours of watering every night.

She understands the watering ban, and emphasizes that she is not very annoyed by it per se. It is mainly that it was announced only one day in advance that is frustrating.

– There has been some negative feedback about me complaining. But there are quite large costs involved.

Now she has received good tips and advice from the locals.

– It’s incredibly well done by them, they come up with advice and smart solutions. They irrigated this way in the “old days”, so I’ll be able to do it too, she says.

Oslo municipality warns of bans

– Took off completely

Arnfinn Hjell, operations technician municipal engineering i Eidsvoll municipalitytells Dagbladet that they do not grant exemptions for garden watering.

– We prioritize having drinking water, not for watering the garden, he says to Dagbladet.

He says that they tried to give notice the night before, but that consumption then “completely took off”. Therefore, the water ban came into effect with immediate effect.

– Next time we just have to notify with immediate effect. When we give notice in advance, we turn on all the taps. There was extreme consumption, he says.

The watering ban has worked, and the municipality is now operating as normal. However, there must be enough rainfall for the soil to become wet before the ban is lifted.

– Garden watering is the big culprit, says Hjell.

Established lawns are more robust

Lawn expert Aamlid says that an established lawn with roots will most likely make it through the watering bans, which many municipalities have now introduced.

– The lawn can turn yellow, brown and dry out, but will in most cases grow back, says Aamlid.

His advice is not to mow the lawn in the heat.

– Have a little height on the grass, then it is more robust. After drought, the lawn will often become a little thinner and more full of weeds, but it mostly comes back, says the lawn expert.