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Irrigation -- Tips For How To Keep Your Plants And Trees In Excellent Health
Regardless of the season, Americans use a major potion of their available water on maintaining their landscape. While the health of the plants and trees in your landscape design is important to the beauty of your home or business and to the local ecology, there is a definite strain on water supplies worldwide. Here are some excellent tips for how to conserve water while maintaining a beautiful landscape for you and your neighbors to enjoy.
What Is The Best Method Of Irrigation?
There are three major methods of irrigation used by Americans: sprinklers, drip irrigation, and hand watering. While sprinklers are the most common form of irrigation, it's important to consider your landscape needs and your ability to reduce water usage when selecting your method.
Sprinklers often save time and can be inexpensive. However, they also have a tendency to waste water. This is because the water is sprayed at the plant, rather than at the plant roots, making most of the water used vulnerable to evaporation rather than absorption. Hand watering, on the other hand, allows you to carefully deliver water to the appropriate areas and lets you monitor the moisture of the area before the water is used, reducing unnecessary watering. However, it is time consuming and labor intensive.
Drip irrigation allows targeted water delivery, though not as specific as hand watering. It also saves time and efficiently delivers water to the plants in your landscape design. The systems, however, can initially be expensive.
Where To Water For Optimal Conservation
Ideally, most water used for your landscape would be put in the soil near the plant's roots. Water that pools on leaves is not only wasted, but can also lead to fungal diseases. If you have problems keeping water near the plant's roots due to run off or soil, consider the position of your plant, if it has enough soil, or if it is too close to paved areas. If runoff seems inevitable, try to apply water in small cycles, giving your plants enough time in between to absorb the water.
Also, consider the type of soil you use or that is indigenous to your landscape area. Clay soil absorbs water much more slowly, but retains it better than sandy soils. Sandy soils generally tend to be bad for water conservation as they erode easily and dry out quickly. Adding organic matter to your soil will improve your soil's ability to retain water. Mulch and shady trees also help to prevent unnecessary evaporation from affecting your landscape design and help to prevent the growth of weeds.
The Best Times To Water
As stated earlier, the maintaining of a landscape design is one of the major uses of water in America. Simply watering at the right times can help to conserve a great deal of this water. By watering your landscape in the early morning or the late evening, you can reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation during the sunniest part of the day. Also, when the day is exceptionally windy, consider whether it is truly necessary to water as water loss is increased during windy periods.
Also, watch and monitor the weather and be prepared to reset any timers you have on your irrigation system. A rain gauge can be helpful in deciding whether your plants truly need watering and how much. These simple tips can help to reduce the amount of water we spend on landscape design, while not sacrificing any functionality of beauty of our areas.
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