Keeping Your Landscape In Good Health Through Proper Irrigation
It doesn’t matter the season, people in America use a good portion of their water supply maintaining their plants and trees. While the health of trees and plants in a landscape design is vital to the beauty of a home, it does place a strain on water supplies, locally and worldwide. This post offers some great tips for conserving water while maintaining the beautiful plants and trees in your landscape.
Finding The Best Irrigation Method
Americans typically use one of the following three methods of irrigation: drip irrigation, hand watering, and sprinklers, with sprinklers being the most common irrigation method used. However, it is crucial to consider the needs of your landscape and reducing water usage when choosing the best irrigation method for you.
While sprinklers can save time and are inexpensive to purchase, they do waste a lot of water because they spray water at the leaves instead of the roots. This means most of the water isn’t absorbed as the water on the leaves evaporates. By hand watering, you deliver water to the exact area needed and you can monitor the moisture before watering, allowing you to reduce the amount of water used. Unfortunately, with a large landscape, hand watering is labor intensive and time consuming.
You can target your water delivery with drip irrigation, although not as accurately as with hand watering. However, drip irrigation saves time as it effectively delivers water to your plants, but it is the most expensive option.
Watering For Best Results
You should water your plants at their roots for best results. Watering the leaves not only wastes water that will just eventually evaporate, it can lead to a number of fungal diseases. If you can’t keep water at the roots of your plants because of runoff, consider repositioning your plant, analyzing whether it has enough soil around the base, or whether it might be too close to paved areas. If runoff remains a problem, apply water in short cycles, giving your plants time in between to absorb the water before watering again.
In addition, look at the soil around your plants, considering whether it is indigenous to your area. Clay is slow to absorb water, but it retains more water. Sandy soil takes in water quickly, but it dries out and erodes easily, making it a bad choice for water conservation. You can add organic matter to your soil to improve its ability to hold water. Shade trees and mulch help as well because they halt evaporation and prevent weeds from growing in your landscape design.
When To Water
You can conserve a huge amount of water simply by watering at the right time of day. Watering in the early morning or in the late evening at dusk or after sundown will work to reduce the amount of evaporation that occurs when watering during the day from 10AM to 6PM. Consider whether you really need to water on windy days as water loss increases with higher winds. By monitoring the weather and resetting timers, you can also conserve water. A rain gauge helps in deciding how much water your plants might need, whether for arid Albuquerque, New Mexico, landscaping or a milder Minneapolis landscape.
From Oregon to Virginia and Florida to Minnesota landscape design, all areas of the country can benefit from these simple tips that will help reduce the water used while not sacrificing the beauty of your landscaping.
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