The second of nine Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles is water efficiently.
Florida typically receives an ample amount of rain each year, but it doesn’t always come when the plants need it. This often results in plants that suffer from a lack of water. Therefore, supplemental water is often needed throughout the year.
Watering efficiently is accomplished by supplying the correct amount of water at the right time. Too much water is not only wasteful, but can also lead to problems such as soil borne fungal diseases and/or weed problems, think nutsedge and dollarweed. Not enough water leads to dead or unhealthy plants that are more prone to pest problems.
Here are some key points to follow, to assure that your landscape is being watered efficiently.
Follow the water restrictions of the St. Johns River Water Management District. Currently, the watering of home landscapes is allowed one day a week, which is fine if you are watering deeply enough when you do water. Homes with odd numbered addresses should water on Saturday mornings and even numbered addresses on Sunday.
When the clocks are set for daylight savings time, Irrigation can be applied twice a week. Odd numbered addresses can water on Wednesday and Saturday and even numbered addresses on Thursday and Sunday.
Consider reevaluating your lawn and look at your turf from a functional point of view. The typical (and often unconscious) mindset is that every home needs a large lawn. A large lawn around your home, along with your neighbors and all the lawns in the neighborhood, will create a large monoculture which will be more prone to insect, weed and disease problems. Plus, turfgrass is a food desert for wildlife.
Instead of the typical mindset, look at your lawn for the functions that you want it to perform, such as an area for children and/or pets to play, the aesthetics of a green patch of turf, the cooling effect of turf, a refreshing barefoot walk (assuming there are no sandspurs) on cool grass, etc. You may come to the decision that you really don’t want to have to maintain all that turf. If that is the case, areas of turf could be removed and a butterfly garden, tree island or a new shrub bed could be planted. Turf requires more water than trees and shrubs, so minimizing turf areas will help to conserve water.
To reduce the incidence of disease, water early in the morning. Moist leaf surfaces are needed for fungal diseases to initiate a disease. Watering early in the morning will allow the leaves to dry off quickly from the sunshine and breezes that typically occur after sunrise.
If you have dollarweed growing in your lawn, that is a sign of too much water. If your yard is not receiving a lot of rain, you are over-watering with too much water at one time and/or too often.
Water plants deeply but infrequently. Watering more often with small amounts of water will not wet the soil deeply enough for a thorough watering of the plant roots. Water turf with approximately ½ -¾” of water each time.
Trees and shrubs require 1 inch of water, at one time, to thoroughly wet the soil deep enough to reach the entire root system during periods of extended drought.
If your irrigation system is run by a timer, hook up a rain shut-off device to conserve water! A rain shut-off device will turn the irrigation off during a heavy rainstorm and keep it off until the water collected has evaporated. means that the morning after a huge deluge the irrigation won’t come on!
If you have no idea how much water your irrigation system is applying, place tuna fish or cat food cans (that are all the same size) scattered throughout each zone. Turn on the system and when it is done, measure the amount of water in each can. Adjust the clock as needed to apply ½ -3/4 of an inch of water for the turf. It wouldn’t hurt to calibrate the time needed to apply 1” for the trees and shrubs for the next time a drought occurs.
Place a rain gauge in your yard to determine how much rainfall your yard receives from each rainfall so you will know if your irrigation will even need to run over the next day or two.
Maintain your irrigation by; checking for and repairing leaks, replacing or unclogging broken heads, watching out for wet sidewalks, driveways and roads due to an irrigation head that should be adjusted to aim it back towards the plants and prune any plants blocking an irrigation head.
Consider setting up a micro-irrigation system (either hooked to your irrigation system or run by a timer attached to a water spigot) to water a vegetable garden, flower bed, potted plants, etc. to conserve water and make watering easier.
Mulch your plants to conserve soil moisture, moderate soil temperature and suppress weeds.
If plants don’t receive the correct amount of water, at the correct intervals, their health will suffer. Make your life easier and your plants happier by maintaining and calibrating your irrigation system and/or setting up a micro-irrigation system. Conserving water, energy and time, along with healthier plants, are the many benefits that you could receive.