Home and Garden Water Conservation Techniques

  Well, Springtime is finally here with a hot vengeance. There are many parts of the country experiencing record hot temperatures, and extremely low rainfall. Some areas are practicing water rationing, and restrictions on landscape use of water. In many municipalities the 'Water Police' are cruising the neighborhoods on the lookout for 'water hogs' and scofflaws who do things such as leaving broken and misdirected sprinklers running, splashing water on the sidewalk and such. They are also making sure that people only water in the morning or evenings.
  When faced with water rationing, or whenever you desire to use water in an efficient manner you should make sure that your sprinkler heads are properly adjusted so as to put water on the plants you desire.
  Group plants with similar water requirements together. For instance cactus and succulents that require only occasional watering should not be planted next to shade and moisture loving ferns.
  Water in the mornings or evenings. Water less often, but water deeply, you want to 'train' the plant roots to go deep for their water. You can let the surface dry out a bit with mature plantings. Their roots should grow deep into the ground where the water has less chance of evaporation.
  Use a mulch to reduce surface evaporation and the 'wicking' of moisture from the deeper areas.
  Let the sprinklers run until you have put down approximately an inch of water. You can tell when this has happened by putting several pots around your landscape. Water until they all have an inch of water in them. When you time how long it takes you will then know approximately how long you need to keep the sprinklers on for. On most soils this will wet the soil deep enough to keep the deeper soil moist. Sandy soils might need a little less water in one application, while clay soils may need more water in one application. Just make sure you are not putting it so quickly on clay soils that it will pool and run off. You may need to do two applications a day apart on some clay soils. Maybe putting three quarters of an inch on each time.
  If you put a lot of compost or other organic material into the soil you might very well be able to conserve moisture to a large degree while increasing aeration and soil microbial life. The compost can absorb large amounts of water when it rains, and then slowly release it to the plant roots when they need it.
  On occasion use a soil probe or shovel to dig into the soil and see how deep the water is getting. This 'hands on' approach will do wonders as far as getting you used to your particular soil. There can be such wide variation on how different soils react that it is hard to give hard and fast recommendations as to timing and frequency of irrigation applications.
  As with all things in gardening, it is good to get on a first name basis with your soil, climate and plants. Get to know and understand the life processes that go on in the soil, and the top growth. Observe and make notes, keep records so that in later years you will be able to reference the things that you did that caused changes in the growth of your gardens.