Yesterday, I was grocery shopping and ran into my neighbor who was in near panic over a recent letter received about ongoing water restrictions from our water company. Visiting with him, combined with seeing the first blossoms of spring trees and bulbs, reminded me it is important to keep perspective about sensible water conservation when you live in an arid climate with periods of drought.
With water restriction announcements, daily media news about drought severity in southwestern States (Colorado is one), and challenging water memories from last year’s garden season fresh in everyone’s mind, I decided it would be useful to offer sensible, scientific fact-based appropriate watering guidelines for garden landscapes.
To begin it is important to realize water restrictions do not mean you throw your hands up and resign yourself to not having a beautiful, useful garden landscape. Indeed, not caring appropriately for the landscape will be unwise for several reasons. The fact is that attractive, well-cared for landscapes increase real estate property values for homeowners by 15 percent or more and can return 150 percent of your investment in that landscape.
Businesses that take maintain attractive landscapes have higher retail traffic, reduced incidences of crime, and higher occupancy rates. If you have property for sale you can reasonably expect sales to be as much as 6 weeks faster and resale value 15 percent greater with nice landscaping. These are facts, not opinions. Cities and towns have a vested economic interest in encouraging their residents and business owners to take care of their landscapes and to support urban forests of large trees, and shrubs. Doing so means more stable and responsible property owners. It means sustainable revenue flow from those same property owners, as well as tourist generated revenue. These reasons alone are worth better understanding of water conservation.
With absolute knowledge that water is limited in arid climates under all conditions, but especially in times of drought, and with anticipation of higher water bills due to water restriction rates to encourage water users to be conservative, what are good watering practices that will allow you to maintain a beautiful garden landscape and still cut down considerably on the amounts of water you use to keep that landscape looking good.
Start by choosing wisely how often and how much to water your garden landscape. It is far too common that landscapes are watered a great deal more than they require. I keep a calendar record of my watering, noting the date areas have been watered and for how long. I usually water each area for 30-45 minutes. In this way all of our landscape gets respectful watering without overdoing it. Established landscapes can thrive on less frequent watering than newly planted landscapes, so adjust appropriately.
Existing trees and shrubs can grow beautifully if they are watered every two weeks. These same woody plants in your landscape are priceless in what they offer, because they not only add beauty to your landscape, they offer cooling benefits during the heat of summer months, cutting down on cooling electric bills because less air conditioning will be needed. They help to maintain good air quality, prevent soil erosion, and support soil moisture by lessening evaporation caused by full sun exposure and hot winds. In addition they act as habitat for wildlife like songbirds, provide screening for privacy, sound, dust and light pollution. We need to keep our woody plants strong and healthy.
When planting lawns, choose more water conserving turf options to bluegrass, which is not a water conserving type of grass. Local garden centers offer any number of appropriate turf choices that will use less water. No matter what type of lawn you have, even bluegrass lawns, can survive very nicely with once a week watering.
Choose perennials and herbs, of which there are literally thousands of good choices, that are appropriate for our soil and climate in southern Colorado. Beautiful long blooming choices like agastaches, catmint, lavenders and coneflowers in many colors, plus ornamental grasses, succulents and cacti, are just the tip of the iceberg in what you can use to design gardens that are gorgeous growing beautifully with a once every 5-7 day watering routine.
Annual flowers, vegetables and small fruits require more frequent watering, but they will provide you with great beauty and abundant harvest on a 3-4 day watering schedule. You do not have to compromise your food garden during times of water restrictions if you plan and care for it wisely. My food garden gets watered every 5-7 days until vegetables and fruits starts to set and mature. At that point I begin watering the food garden every 4 days unless temperatures are over 100 degrees, in which case the food garden gets watered every 3 days.
Container gardening is another viable option, especially for those with limited water resources and funds. Those with limited incomes (Chris and I fall into this group), those with wells or cisterns, and those with limited growing areas can still garden in containers for beauty in their landscape or an abundant food garden. Containers must be watered every day or two, especially on hot or windy days, so they require a commitment from the gardener to be mindful of this need. They will be hand-watered with a hose or watering can (a very conserving way to water). I recycle the rinse water from my dishes and washing machine a way I can water my containers, of which I grow many, and save water, save money at the same time.
When you are getting perennial, annual and food plants newly established in your garden it is best to hand water them using a hose with a shutoff valve on the watering wand or watering can, because they will require watering every two to three days until they get rooted in well and can hold up to a regular watering schedule. This settling in period takes about two weeks for most plants in these categories. Trees and shrubs need to be watered about every five
days the first growing season to establish themselves well and thrive.
Choose watering tools with equal wisdom. Use hoses that are in good repair with a shut-off valve on the end of the hose connecting to a watering wand, soaker hose, or sprinkler so that no water is wasted while moving the hose from place to place. Use only low spray sprinklers if you must use a sprinkler. Whenever possible, use soaker hoses or drip irrigation, which work in many situations with mindful planning. They are not difficult to install if you plan, and the garden centers, hardware stores and landscape/garden people are great helping with this planning.
If you have an automatic sprinkler system be certain it is programmed well so no water is wasted from overlap watering, too frequent watering, watering during rain events, etc. That is not smart water conservation and it is expensive on your water bill! Check your sprinklers, whether they are automatic or hose-connected, that they are not watering unintended areas like driveways. If you are concerned about knowing how often to your landscape, buy a moisture meter available at the garden center. Moisture meters are extremely easy to use and will cost between $20 to $30. They are worth every penny because they take the guess work out of watering practices. Consider it a worthwhile investment! Finally, never water on windy days or during the heat of the day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., as this is a huge recipe for wasting water to evaporation.
Lastly, remember outdoor watering is only a part of the water you use in your household, and annually it is quite often the smaller portion of water used compared to indoor water use. Be conservative indoors too, fixing leaky plumbing, washing only full loads of clothes, consider that 90 percent of us are perfectly respectable showering every other day instead of daily. Hand washing dishes uses much less water than automatic dish washers. Limit use of the bathtub to special occasions, using the shower with a low flow shower head instead. If possible, replace toilets with low flush toilets. Toilets are huge water users with each flush.
All these things help with good water conservation and reduce costs.
Tammi Hartung is the author of “Homegrown Herbs and Growing 101 Herbs That Heal”
