Preparing Your Garden: When To Start Watering And Planting In Utah

Though the weather has been wet and snowy across the state of Utah, it's never too early to check in on when you should be turning your sprinklers on.  

For those who live in the southern region of the state, temperatures will start climbing faster in the coming month and the beautiful rain will be a rarer occurrence. This means that planning your garden, sprinkler schedule, and what to plant will be coming sooner than you think.  

Northern Utah will have a lower chance of killing their plants due to the insane heat than Southern Utah but, these tips will still apply.  

As of the first of February, the state is still considered to be in a drought though some places are labeled “none”, “moderate drought”, and “abnormally dry”. The U.S. Drought Monitor keeps track of how well we are doing and technically we are doing better than this time last year.  

The heavy rain in Southern Utah may be factoring in to this.  

So, when should you start watering your lawn in Utah? 

“We don’t start recommending watering until average highs are in the 70s,” said Shelby Ericksen, a water conservation manager for the Utah Division of Water Resources. —Salt Lake Tribune  

Last year, Ericksen recommended that everyone who wasn’t in Washington County wait until May 1 or really, the start of Summer for Southern Utah.  

Since St. George, Veyo, Hurricane and surrounding cities heat up earlier than the rest of the state, they get an early pass.  

Once warmer weather hits Utah, everyone will be (hopefully) watering lawns, gardens, flowers, etc. with the drought in mind. One way to help conserve water is to turn your sprinkler system on very early in the morning or very late at night. This way the sun doesn’t steal all that precious water.  

Make sure to also water when it's not windy if possible and keep your grass about three to four inches long. That helps the soil keep the water.