(Tiny Tips) – Watering Your Garden Wisely – The hot summer days may have you considering new landscaping to conserve water. Or maybe you already have a well-designed xeric landscape. But whether you’re planting thirsty irises or drought-tolerant succulents in your garden, you don’t have to wait for a drought to conserve water. Smart irrigation keeps your landscape healthy without wasting the earth’s most precious resource.
Watering Your Garden Wisely
Water-wise Gardens
Water gardening is a comprehensive design and maintenance concept. However, no matter what type of landscape you have, you can apply some of these principles. The two most important principles for an existing landscape are to focus on the health of the soil and water only as much as necessary.
Soil preparation is great for new landscaping. However, once the landscape is established, surface applications of compost and organic mulch will improve soil texture and fertility over time. A thick layer of mulch also reduces evaporation from the soil and helps keep plant roots cool. Depending on soil type, additional fertilizer may be needed. Apply only as needed to avoid point source contamination.
Hopefully, your plants are grouped according to their water needs so that you don’t have to overwater certain plants so that other nearby plants get enough water. (If this is not the case, plan to transplant mismatched neighbors in the fall.) If you water every day, or if water runs across the street after watering, or if you water too much. In general, water once a week until the top 3 inches of soil is nearly saturated. Your watering schedule should change seasonally based on rainfall and temperature fluctuations.
When watering, do it low and slow to ensure you’re watering the soil, not the leaves, and to give the soil time to absorb the water before it evaporates or is lost. Collect kitchen and shower water for potted plants, and consider installing rain barrels to collect additional water.
Better Sprinkler Systems
Standing in the garden with a hose or connecting the hose to a sprinkler in the middle of your lawn is the least efficient way to water. But if you really only have a small lawn, this may be your only option. Don’t spray an area larger than your lawn, and use the tin can method to measure the amount of water your sprinkler delivers.
Despite their inefficiency, sprinklers are the most commonly installed irrigation system. To increase the efficiency of your sprinkler system, turn off all sprinkler heads in areas where water is not actually needed. Make sure all control heads are not blocked by objects or plants that could splash water into puddles. Replace nozzles to provide a spray area and radius suitable for the watered area. Use a booster pump or pressure reducer to keep your system operating at the designed water pressure.
Regularly inspect the entire system for breaks, leaks, and other waste issues. Reprogram your system to work on water technology principles and water less often and more intensively during cooler times of the day. For best results, use a smart controller. Many cities offer rebates for installing smart controls because they can reduce irrigation water use by 30 percent.
Drip Irrigation Systems
While only 50-70% of the water in a sprinkler system is absorbed by the plant, a drip irrigation system delivers 90% or more of the water directly to the plant roots. There are different types of drip irrigation systems. Generally, they consist of a network of plastic pipes that slowly transport water to the plants. Sometimes water is delivered through a simple hole in a pipe or hose, but nozzles and micro-atomizers can also be used.
Installing a permanent irrigation system may be beyond your budget. But you can also install drip hoses seasonally. Soak hoses can be covered with coverings for aesthetic reasons and to improve efficiency. They should be raised and stored during the winter as they may be damaged by freeze-thaw cycles. There are many commercially available types of drip hoses that slowly release water along their entire length. You can also make your own old hose by poking small holes every 15 cm and fitting a hose cap by poking a small hole in the open end. You can also imitate a more complex drip irrigation system by laying the hose down in the landscape first and then just drilling holes near the plants.
Drip hoses are usually connected to hose nozzles, but some drip irrigation systems can be connected to an existing sprinkler system. Unlike sprinkler systems, most people can install their own drip irrigation system. An expensive irrigation system may be worth every penny, but a little wisdom goes a long way when it comes to saving water in your garden.