How can I tell if I am watering the lawn enough?

Q. How can I tell if I am watering the lawn enough? We’re in a drought area and I don’t want to use too much water but we use the lawn for croquet and don’t want it all brown and rough.

A. Firstly, it’s good practice to water in the early morning, evening or at night to limit evaporation. Watering once a week to ten days is enough. An area of one square metre/sq. yard needs about 20 litres/4½ gallons of water every seven days. For an average hosepipe sprinkler that means about 12 minutes of sprinkling is sufficient for an area of 9 sq metres or about 95 to 100 sq feet. You can check how deeply the water is penetrating by digging a small test hole with a trowel after watering – a 10cm/4” depth of water penetration is enough.