When you are watering your landscapes, keep these top tips in mind to ensure that your home garden or lawn is both healthy and green while also using water as efficiently as possible.
- Check the soil: First use a moisture meter or good old eight-inch screwdriver to see if your yard needs water. If meter says it’s moist or the screwdriver easily goes into the soil, you can skip running the sprinklers.
- Inspect your sprinklers: Check your sprinklers on a regular basis for problems like clogged and broken heads or ones that misdirected and spraying the sidewalk or your car instead of your yard.
- Water in the morning: After you’ve checked to see if you need to water, set your sprinklers to run in the early morning. The temperatures are lower, slowing evaporation so less water is lost and more gets to your plants.
- Use the cycle and soak method: Cycle and soak is a process of running your sprinklers in shorter increments spaced out over a period of time to allow for better absorption by the soil. For example, if you’re running your sprinklers for eight minutes, break the watering cycle into two increments of four minutes, spaced an hour apart. This allows the water to better permeate through the soil and get to where it’s needed.
Learn more tips for using water wisely at www.roseville.ca.us/savewater or BeWaterSmart.info.