Are You Water Wise? Are We Using Our Water Resource Wisely?
The Bottom Line, How Much Water Are We Wasting Each Day, Month and Year?
Here are a few suggestions to help reduce landscape water waste in the Inland Empire.
Plant a garden in areas of your grass. You will use less water in your garden then for the same sized area of grass. Learn more about using less water and creating food for your entire family.
Irrigation Evaluation
1. Check the type of sprinklers you are using. Are your sprinkler heads watering efficiently? A good indication of non efficient sprinkler heads is, when a valve has gone through its cycle do you still have water seep through the head, or at the lowest head do you have what seems to be a continual flow of water? Did you know that some inefficient sprinkler heads will waste 1 gallon of water from the start of the watering cycle to the finish of the cycle? Now multiply that by the amount of sprinkler heads you have in your landscape, by however many times that station is watered per week. That’s a lot of wasted water that could help so many people.
2. Separate your watering sprinkler cycles for each different plant type. From grass to shrubs to trees the watering time varies. As do the depth of the root systems for each plant. If you were trying to water a tree with the same sprinkler valve you water the grass. Your grass could die, because correct watering of a tree means you water it once or twice a week. That isn’t enough for the grass. Grass roots are shallower and will dry up faster, whereas a tree’s root system is deep and retains more moisture. So separating the sprinkler system will give you more control over how much water is used, also you will promote healthier plants because of the correct watering cycles.
3. Pressure regulating devises might be installed for high pressure situations. In high pressure irrigation systems you get a misting or fogging effect, this wastes nearly 50% of your water per sprinkler head. Bring the water pressure down to a optimum level like 30 psi to each spray head will result in big water savings
4. Installing a Water Smart Irrigation Controller. Some smart water controller will adjust for weather, type of plant and root depth, steepness of the terrain, type of soil. The end result is you will waste less water and promote proper plant care with the right amount of water.
5. Adjust the starting time on the irrigation controller. Setting your landscape irrigation controller to start between 5am and 10am, you will use less water. Later in the day spray heads waste water due to evaporated and being blown by the wind.
If you want to help the environment and its most valuable resource, “Water”. Then do your part to conserve by making the necessary changes. If you need help call The Schubert Team we can perform a Water Audit and update your irrigation system, let our team help you lessen your Carbon Foot Print on this earth.
