Gardening Tips 4 – Practice Smart Water Techniques.
Use soaker hoses when watering in planting beds. This can reduce by 50% the water you would use if you used a
sprinkler or watered by hand.
Water in the early morning or evening.
Don’t water in the heat of the day. You will only lose water to evaporation. If you have an automatic system, set it to come on in the early morning hours between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Mulch! Using pine straw, bark chips or ground hardwood mulch on the roots of the plants and trees helps the soil retain water and use the mulch option on your lawn mower. Leaving grass clippings on the lawn provides free fertilizer. This helps lawns grow greener and denser.
Don’t water until plants need it. Far more plants die from over-watering than underwatering. For many garden plants, the best way to know if plants need water is to let your finger be the guide. Dig down several inches near the base of the plant. If the soil is bone dry, that’s your cue to water. When a plant begins to show signs of wilting, especially in the morning, it probably needs water.