These days we really have to take a conscious look at how we utilize our natural resources. Water is one of the biggest. In places like California, places suffering from extreme drought, water is getting scarce. But how can we more responsibly consume water on an everyday basis? The obvious answer is to look at our water usage within our home: don’t let the faucet run unhindered; while waiting for water to turn warm, collect the cold water from the tap; limit our showers, etc. These are all obvious answers, but, less obvious, consider the way we water our gardens. Are we watering at the most optimal times? Is the water being used efficiently? One answer to this is the installation of drip irrigation in your garden.
Drip irrigation is easy to install. It’s powered from water taken from an outdoor source such as a standard spigot, and that water is channeled through small tubing, tubing strung around the drip line of plants. You can snake drip irrigation around most any garden plant, or run it in-line with a row. In larger applications, drip irrigation can be used to water trees and shrubs.
There are many different brands of drip irrigation, but find one that suits the size of your gardening needs. You may also tie the drip irrigation into a faucet with a self-programmed timer, so that the water is dispersed to plants for a specified amount of time, at the specified most-optimal watering time each day. Drip irrigation is very easy to install and requires very little of your time to install a complete system; even less time when you consider just how many minutes each day you spend standing over your garden watering plants overhead with the hose or with a watering can. Drip irrigation is also easily hidden by scattered mulch, although the small tubing is barely noticeable beneath plants that have grown past the size of initial seedlings.
Remember, a routine watering schedule in conjunction with a well-composted garden makes for beautiful plants. Call Rocky Mountain Compost today for more information.