Question
My home and lawn on built completely on shale. The lawn consists of the sod, a sprinkling of sandy loam and then shale. To give an idea of the shale, to plant a tree, I rented a jack hammer to make an appropriate size hole for the tree. I live in north Texas and I was wondering on how to water a lawn of this type. The long slow soak doesn't do much as the water runs off. Should I do multiple shorter waterings? or some other technique?

Answer
Hi Andrew, In soil that shallow, you don't have much option but to shorten the time and increase the frequency.  Try also to decrease the volume.  You want to water as long as possible to saturate the soil thoroughly but not fast enough to cause runoff. You didn't mention what type of grass you are growing.  You may want to consider changing to a more drought tolerant variety that will not need as much water.  If you are in Zone 7, consider Palisade Zoysia.
It's a coarse bladed variety that tolerates shade well and is very drought tolerant. Jim