Ideas
Water Like a Pro
Here are 10 essential steps to saving water in the
garden you have or in the new one you design
1. Check Your Water Pressure
Do you know your home's water pressure? It's easy to find out. Buy a
pressure gauge at a garden supply store, screw it on to a hose bib and
turn the water on all the way. If you have a hose bib located on the
water line before the line enters the house, test the pressure there as
it will tell you the available pressure before water passes through the
pressure regulator for the house.
High water pressure – over 70 psi – can cause sprinklers to fog,
reducing the amount of water that is applied to your garden. Installing
a pressure regulator or sprinklers with pressure regulating stems
will control the issue. Low water pressure – under 30 psi – can
reduce a sprinkler's distance, leaving unwatered areas. The
solution for low water pressure is to use drip irrigation as much
as possible, because it is designed to operate at lower pressure.
2. Inspect Your System
The one downside of early-morning watering is that most
homeowners are sleeping and irrigation problems go undiscovered.
Once a month, manually cycle through each irrigation zone. Check,
adjust, or replace sprinkler heads and drip emitters that are missing,
blocked, broken, or watering hardscape. When you replace a
sprinkler head, make sure it has the same precipitation rate as the
other heads in that irrigation zone.
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