Water conservation is more important than ever and every little bit can make a large difference to your home owning costs. Depending on the climate you live in, you may have to water your lawn and garden quite often.
To help you save water and lessen your monthly costs, we?re taking a look at the different types of irrigation systems that could be beneficial to your home!
Sprinkler Systems
Sprinklers are designed to cover large areas and can be either manual or automatic. If you choose to use automatic sprinkler systems, make sure you adjust the system as weather conditions change and to turn off your system if you are getting enough water from rainfall.
Hand Watering
This simple method of watering can be done with a garden hose or watering can, although it is extremely time consuming if you have a larger yard. Hand watering also leaves a lot of room for error ? while irrigation and sprinkler systems generally run on a timer that prevents them from using too much water, hand watering forces you to use your judgement, often leaving your lawn over- or under-watered.
Drip Irrigation
Drip irrigation is most effective for a small yard or individual plants, and can supply one-to-four gallons of water per hour to the soil. This option creates very little water loss by minimizing runoff and evaporation. It works well on mulched areas because it won?t wash away the mulch.
To conserve water with any of these methods, you will have to do a little research.
- Be water-wise by always knowing how much water your lawn, and individual plants, need. Have a professional measure your sprinkler output to make sure you are not wasting water or damaging your foliage by overwatering.
- Make sure you only water when you need to. It?s easy to tell if your lawn needs water: step on it! If the grass doesn?t spring back, then the lawn needs a drink.
- When watering plants or shrubs, water at the drip line (under the edge of the leaf canopy). Watering the leaves or trunk doesn?t bring water efficiently to the plant?s roots.
- Set your system to water early in the morning to lower the rate of evaporation.
- Use a rain barrel (with a well-fitted screen to avoid mosquito larvae) to collect rainwater, to use to water indoor plants.
- Research low-water use plants, like shrubs and groundcover, and use them to fill larger areas in your garden.
- Install a rain gauge so you know which days you can skip watering.
Conserving water is all about the little details. By knowing when to water and when not too, you can also save yourself time and effort. Water by hand when you can, as it?s the most effective way to avoid wastage. And last but not least, always be conscious of your water use?water is precious in both monetary value and to the economy, so ensure you?re doing your part to minimize use.