An oscillating sprinkler will help you water your lawn more effectively and efficiently.
We recommend investing in a few simple tools to help you grow a green, vigorous, healthy lawn. A healthy lawn is a Bee Friendly Lawn.
If you grow a lawn that is lush, thick and robust, it will have much fewer problems with weeds, moss and insect pests. A weak, thin lawn is more likely to be invaded. If you can avoid using herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, you are helping to protect our native bees.
Oscillating sprinkler
An oscillating sprinkler will help you water your lawn deeply. Slow and deep watering is important so the water can penetrate deep into the root zone. An impact sprinkler is another good option.
A lawn with deep roots is more resilient. It is less prone to drought stress and will need less water in the hot summer months. A lawn with shallow roots is likely to suffer when the summer gets hot and dry.
Watch our short video on watering systems, including oscillating sprinklers.
Soil probe
A soil probe allows you to measure how deeply the water has penetrated. This will let you know whether you are reaching deep enough into the root zone to encourage the lawn to grow deep roots. Watering deeply is key to healthy plants.
Watch our short video “Watering 101: Create Strong and Healthy Plants.” It explains how and why to water deeply. Start at 1:08 for instructions on how to use a soil probe.
Water timer
A water timer will help you water your lawn long enough for the water to penetrate, but not so long that you waste water. Watch our short video on water timers.
Image: Secret Garden
Hori hori knife
A “hori hori” is a Japanese gardening knife. It has a unique blend of digging and cutting features.
The hori hori knife has a deep blade that gets more of the root of dandelions or other deep-rooted weeds, reducing the chance it will grow back.
It is easy to weed with a hori hori knife. Just slide the blade down into the soil next to the center of the dandelion or other weed. Rock it a little to loosen the weed. Then move the handle away from the weed while at the same time pulling gently yet firmly on the weed.
Using this method, you should be able to pull out all or most of the weed. This greatly reduces the chance that the weed will grow back.
Thanks to the shape and size of a hori hori, you can use it not only to weed but also to dig, transplant, saw, cut and even measure soil depth for planting bulbs.
Many gardeners consider the hori hori their favorite gardening tool. Zacs Garden has a review of several different hori hori knives.
All weeding is easier in damp soil rather than dry soil. And it is easiest to get the entire root when the weeds are small.
More tips on growing a Bee Friendly Lawn
In addition to tools recommended for a Bee Friendly Lawn, we have six other tips on how to grow a #BeeFriendlyLawn.
