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gixxerific
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Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B

A tip to help US conserve water.

I was reading today, go figure. Came across something I had never thought of and maybe some of you neither.

When watering you should use the on-off-on method to conserve water as well as do your garden, lawn better. The idea is that MOST soils become saturated after about 10 min, less clay soils about 15. Than where does the water go? it runs off to somewhere it's not needed and wasted.

So what you should do is run your irrigation for about 10 minutes than stop them for about 30 - 60 min. That let's the water soak in to lower levels of the subsoil, than on again for another 10 min or so. By this time the soil will be able to take in the additional water. Makes sense to me hope it does to you. The amount of water on this planet that is drinkable is only about 1 percent of the total water on Earth. Using this method by just the US could save billions of gallons of wasted water.

I could go on, but I won't for now.

Dono :idea:

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Nice post. I do water flowers, herbs, and veggies if they need it. I have a rain barrel collecting water from a downspout and this year I think I will get another one. I never water the lawn. Personally, I think if you live in an area where lawn grass won't survive without watering, you shouldn't have a lawn, do xeriscaping. My lawn usually gets kind of dried up and brown in heat of summer, mainly Aug, but then comes back once the weather cools off and the rains come back (and then goes dormant for the winter). But it does what it does with no particular help from me.

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gixxerific
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Thanks Rainbow :) Another thing is get a rain gauge. Most people water way to often, even a tuna can would work when it's an inch that's enough. Though you need to empty them after every rain/watering so as to not succumb to false readings due to evaporation.

It is scientifically stated that over 50% of U.S. residents will over water to about 2-2/12 inches a week. Yet again more BILLIONS of gallons of wasted water. :edit: just checked the facts if just 100,000 Americans with an average sized lawn of 5,000 sq. ft. cut there watering from 2 down to 1 inch a week it would save 7.8 BILLION Gallons of water per year. Oh my!

If you have a an automated watering system definitely go for the water sensor you can save around 30% of the water you are now.

Green Is good!

top_dollar_bread
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Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:34 pm
Location: Inland Empire,CA

yea my neighbor uses so much water for ther grass, its ridiculous
I tried to let then know but I get one of these :evil:
so I left them a be water wise brochure on ther door step, it hasnt worked…

I water when needed, I use my drip system that has two days of no water threw out the week. I also mulch with compost and news paper to help my soil stay moist...during the dry summers I get minor lack of water problems but I manage
also be ontop of your irrigation, fix the broken ones.. lots of water is lost from those

GardenGeek
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NIce Information to share..
I would like to add some general information regarding watering the soil.

Water plants only as fast as the soil can absorb it. One of the best reasons for watering from the bottom is that it allows the plants to absorb water at its own speed. Too often, when you water plants the water runs down around the sides of the root ball and dribbles out the bottom drainage holes. Aqua Globe is a good solution for this problem as well.

Keep sharing such nice information. I will try this for my garden :D

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gixxerific
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TDB I hear on the over watering neighbors, I have quite a few. They like to water around 3:00 in the afternoon when it's around 90+ degrees too, come on people use your brains. They don't seem to listen to me either. It's gonna get ugly this summer I'm armed to the teeth with new knowledge and that's ever increasing. I'm gonna change at least one person and probably make some enemy's along the way. :lol: That's how I like it though.

I could have kicked myself last year, I was gong to run the sprinkler for about 15 min one night it was after sundown. I forgot about it and woke up the next morning and saw the sidewalk was wet and thought "My neighbor sure is watering early today" than it hit me. :shock: :x My sprinkler had been running all night. I now have timers. I'm so stupid sometimes too.

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gixxerific
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I hear ya MarlinG it really makes me sad to see automated sprinklers going when it's raining. We do get quite a bit of rain here.

Last year I remember several times after 5+ inches of rain and while it's still raining so hard you can hardly see to drive, seeing sprinklers just a merrily wasting water on to lawns of businesses and homes. :evil:

GeorgiaGirl
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Location: Metro Atlanta, GA (zone 7)

Great reminder. Until last year, I never watered the lawn or any plants one single time. Even during the drought we had here from 2007-2008... never watered a thing!

That was because I wasn't into gardening at the time, but it hit me last year... our Bermuda grass and all the native foundation shrubs looked AWESOME in spite of it. That's when I realized I could probably garden, if I chose the right kinds of plants that could tolerate the conditions here. Through that realization, I sort of stumbled into native gardening, as well as organic gardening and permaculture, and the rest is history.

Currently, I do water when I first plant new things, but more typically, I check the 10-day forecast and plant on a day when it's supposed to rain for the next several days. I did that today... it was sunny and cool (beautiful planting weather!), but it's going to rain tomorrow, so I planted 6 blueberry bushes and some raspberries. I watered them in with some rainwater from last week's rain and voila, a very water-conserving way to put in new plants.

I'm saving up for a sprinkler system because I do want to have a lawn in the back yard for several reasons (mainly, puppies and children!), and having a sensor, and a timer that can do the 10-minutes-on-10-minutes-off thing, are critical. (I'm scared to even get an estimate on this; I imagine it will be thousands....)

We are also considering having a well dug and tying that in with the irrigation system. Only issue with that is that we are downhill from many neighbors who use alllll kinds of chemicals on their lawns... I guess that would feed right into our well... yuchhhh. Maybe we'll just expand our rainwater system instead (right now our "system" is very crude; just a single barrel). Definitely will need something now that I'll be gardening vegetables.

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gixxerific
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Georgiagirl look around at friends that may know someone who installs sprinklers. I'm luck that my neighbor's best friend's brother whom I am all friends with. Installs them and would do it very cheaply on the side (cash work) probably save half the normal installation fee if not more. The material is relatively cheap. It's the labor that kills you, oh and the MARKUP!!!!!!

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Sage Hermit
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Location: Finlaysen, MN Coniferous Forest

I'm using melted snow. There is 2 feet of it just laying around for indoor growing :)



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