It depends on where you live. If you really live in downtown Los Angeles, then that is too much water. However, if you live east of there, say in West Covina, then it might be the right amount of water. Every time someone writes in from "Los Angeles," it turns out they live somewhere else. There has only been one person who actually lived in LA. He described where he lived and I did not realize it was in the city limits. Anyway in LA it is most important to know where you really are. Marathon, Marathon II, or Marathon III? Generally you need to keep the sod moist for 2-3 weeks until the roots from the sod knit into the underlying soil. Watering at breakfast time, lunch, and dinner is usually good. If you live west of PCH, that's too much. You might be able to go to once a day in the middle of the afternoon. If you live west of the 405 you can probably back off to 2x per day at lunch and early evening. Any place else and I would water three x per day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. Then the trick is how long to water. Measure the output of your sprinkler with a tuna can. Time how long it takes to fill the can. If you can fill the can in 15 minutes, then watering for 15 minutes is WAAAAAy too long. If it takes 8 hours, then you will need to water longer than 15 minutes. Start at 30 minutes. The problem with watering in the very early morning is the afternoon heat will dry up the sod. Watering in the afternoon cools the sod and moistens it just when it needs it most. Once the lawn is established and the roots are deep in the soil, then you can usually go with morning watering. It really makes a difference where you live. Did they roll the sod down? If not you still can do that. If you don't have much sod you can just go out and walk on every square foot of it to tamp it down. Roots will not grow through the air to reach the soil below. If your soil is so soggy or soft that you cannot walk on it without sinking, then you have other problems. We would need to know what caused that. It is very common which is why I bring it up.

You are supposed to water lightly everyday for a couple weeks before backing off to 2-3x a week for the same amount of water weekly. (1 inch total a week divided into numbers of days). The idea behind light watering is to keep the sod moist, not very soggy. You may have watered too much every day. I'm afraid to find out what you will pay for the water bill. My neighbors did that and got very high water bill... It's time to stop watering for several days to dry it out then mow. Fertilize with high nitrogen number product (example 24-0-11 by Lesco, and so on) in two weeks.

It is not the most savory option but human urine is a good deterrant. I have found you do not have to put on the plants but sprinkle in a perimeter around the plants. If the males in your house have good aim and you live in a seculed area, send them out at night! :) The downside is repeated application which, as the gentleman noted above, is going to be the downside with anything but a fence. I have heard the human hair option works but have never tried it myself. My father in law puts aluminum pie pans on a pole to act as an inexpensive noise maker--they make a lot of noise when they rattle together but if there is no wind, or your garden is outside the bedroom window, this may not work. You may need to try a combo of methods--that's what I did (urine around plants, pepper spray on plants, noise makers and I trellised as many plants as I possibly could) and I think I have finally gotten rid of my critters!

1) Make sure you're not flooding the sod or seed. Twice a day might or might not be right (it's probably right for the seed, at about 10 minutes a shot, but may be saturating the sod too much if the soil underneath is already wet...or too little if you have a fast-draining soil). 1a) "This area is mostly clay." We usually skate over this comment because everybody says it and, 99% of the time, they are not correct. Clay soils are actually extremely rare. What most people have are poorly treated soils that are something else and, with the proper treatment, resource balancing, and care, will be nice soil. No soil drains at a rate such that dumping water on it will enable it to drain instantly, except for a highly-sandy mix, and you don't want one of those. My beautiful silt suffered severe runoff last night in a thunderstorm, resulting in zero erosion due to a thick turf and mulched gardens. Lecture ends. :-) 1b) " I haven't done any soil testing." To end up with a showcase lawn, this will be necessary. If you're looking for the average weedy, patchy lawn, you don't need to. For something in-between, get the test and work with the worst problem or two. I tend to recommend Logan Labs (currently open) and will happily give you a full read on that for free. Just get the basic $25 test, it's comprehensive, and will save you hundreds in guttershot treatments in the future. 2) Get that soil test. If it's really clay, you're going to need to work in tons (literally) of organic material over a period of years. But I doubt that. You can do an in-home jar test to see what you actually have, as well, at least at a first guess. Water that seed twice a day, minimum (for April, that's fine). I assume they used a tri-mix, which includes bluegrass, so keep up the watering for 1 month (bluegrass takes forever and you want it because it self-repairs). At that point, you can back off to once every other day watering unless the weather is extremely hot. Hold that for 2 weeks, then back off to every 3 days (or every 2 days). For two weeks. You're going to need to hold every 3 days to every 4 days throughout the summer if it doesn't rain. Spring seedings are touchy and aren't going to forgive you for letting them go dry. Even so, expect losses if the weather gets scorching hot. If so, plan to reseed a bit on August 15. Revert back to the twice-daily waterings on the newly-planted areas, probably on the sections that point into the Sun. Your fall-seeded areas, having all fall and spring to adjust in, will tolerate next summer much better, but may still need a little coddling. In-Home Jar Test Take a nice tall-sided jar and fill it with soil about 8/10ths full. Add water and let it all soak. Shake very well. You can lid this, but I recommend using aluminum foil. Take a photo at 2 minutes and make sure to measure where the "settling" line is. That's sand. Take a photo at 2 hours and make sure to measure where the "settling" line is. That's silt. Take a photo at 2 days and make sure to measure where the "settling" line is. That's clay. It's crude and awfully subtle sometimes, but it gives you an idea. So if you have 1 inch of sand, 2 inches of silt, and 1 inch of clay in the jar (preferably straight-sided as curved sides bollix the math), then 25% sand, 50% silt, and 25% clay. Or, a silty/medium loam. In my case? Six grains of sand, 95% silt, and 5% clay. Welcome to eastern Pennsylvania! :-) There can be issues in some soils, but your soil test will tell us that as well, and tell us that your jar test will need to be re-done with a solvent. You can, if you wish, simply use vinegar instead--it'll break up a calcium soil--but if you do, NEVER put a lid on the jar. Any calcium carbonate will react and out-gas and shatter the jar. Sometimes quite explosively. Hence the recommendation to always use aluminum foil to begin with; some water sources are slightly acidic.