Water Smarter This Summer

Summer months apply the greatest strain to your landscape infrastructure. With temperatures climbing fast, there may be a tendency to increase water run times. However, maintaining your more traditional, static watering schedules just ends up washing out the water and nutrients and leading to higher monthly utility bills than is necessary. 

Water management today means data backed precision, not conjecture. Switching your property over to a high-efficiency layout allows you to not only preserve your seasonal plantings, reducing your water consumption by thirty to fifty percent in the process, but more importantly, keep you within the watering window and to maintain maximum compliance despite increasingly draconian regulations imposed by water agencies or changes enforced at state or even national policy about usage and water conservation with no direct input or redress.

1. Control More Closely with Smart Controllers and Localized Predictive Analytics

When your watering schedule relies on a calendar timer, you end up doing so regardless of real-time local weather fluctuations. Upgraded irrigation systems utilize real-time predictive climate analytics and soil moisture data to inform the perfect watering schedule. ​
Evapotranspiration (ET) Adjustments: Climate-based controllers analyze local temperature, humidity and solar radiation to regulate how much moisture is currently leaving the soil profile. They then modify runtimes automatically.

Soil Moisture Sensors: Placing these sensors meters into the rootzone eliminates unnecessary watering cycles when the lower soil still experiences sufficient moisture.

2. Move to Micro-Irrigation and Below Surface Drip Lines

Overhead spray nozzles can lose a high percentage of water to wind drift or due to immediate evaporation during the hottest summer days. Directing water precisely where it is most needed dramatically reduces wastage.

Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI): Burying these drip lines close to the root zone eliminates any surface evaporation whatsoever. This method provides steady water application so it soaks easily into the entire soil profile.

Targeted Micro-Sprinklers: Specialty and variated ground covering often require their own water schedules. Targeted micro-sprinklers offer ideal and delicate low-volume, precise water distribution to these structures and roots.

3. Zone with Strategy and Pulse Cyclically

Watering an entire property uniformly ignores the microclimates to which each landscape zone is subjected. Grouping plants according to watering demand avoids issues related to both underwatering and overwatering.

Customized Zone Profiles: Slopes with heavier clay soils, dense shade coverage and turf subjected to direct sunlight all warrant dedicated programs, to best maintain their appearance. As a general rule, shaded areas should run shorter cycles while areas most exposed to direct sun require deeper, less frequent applications.

Pulse Irrigation Techniques: Continuous watering may be a disadvantage for plant life in the case of sloped beds and tight, compacted terrain where there is an issue with quick run-off. Instead allow the groundwork enough time to absorb water by scheduling the lines to run through a more methodical system of short intervals with downtime for moisture to absorb into root structures efficiently.

Pro Tip for Summer Performance: Run a comprehensive mid-season audit. Check for clogged emitters, misaligned spray heads and hidden leaks-even minor pressure drops or overspray can indicate system fatigue, resulting in inconsistent water distribution and wasted water.