Water, Water Everywhere

Water, water everywhere there's way too much to drink.

Water, water everywhere, I'm going to drown, I think.

That bit of doggerel is a reminder that most homeowners over-water their lawns and gardens.  To help educate the public on best watering practices, the Highlands County Mobile Irrigation Lab was created through a grant from SWFWMD and partnerships with others such as the Highlands County Soil and Water District.  More than 428 irrigation audits have been performed with a SWFWMD estimated savings of 50% on irrigation water used in Highlands County. Here is a link that explains the Lab and its objectives: Mobile Irrigation Lab

One of the first things that gardeners should do is find out how much water is being used.  Short cans like tuna cans make a good gauge for your spinkler system.  Set them out in various places within your irrigation zone.  Turn on the spinklers for 15 minutes and measure the amount of water in the cans by 1/8 inch increments.  (Turn off the water first unless you need a very cold shower.) If average depth is 1/8, to get 1/2 inch of water run sprinklers for 60 minutes; 1/4 inch run 30 minutes; 3/8 run 20 minutes; 1/2 run
15 minutes and 3/4 run 10 minutes.  With our current twice-a-week watering schedule this is sufficient water for your established lawn and garden from April to October.  Only once a week is needed from November to March.  Keep a rain gauge too.  If Mother Nature has provided 3/4 to 1 inch of rain, you don't need to water. 

Another very good way to conserve water is to retro-fit your irrigation system.  We had a hands-on learning lab for that thanks to Eilene Beck Highlands County Landscape Coordinator.  Here is a link to a very comprehensive commercial site about drip irrigation planning and installation.  Drip Irrigation  You can retro-fit your current system to conserve water and provide better irrigation to your lawn and garden.  Now for the hands-on...
  
Here are Janet, Tim and Amir with some of the parts we will use, and on the right below are Duane and Moddie installing microjets. We were all glad the project was on a table and not on the ground.

Now it's time for the smoke test... oops that's for electricity.  Let's give it a water test instead.

See the happy smiles on Moddie's, Teresa's and Sharon's faces?  That means it worked.  Yaa!  We are irrigation installation engineers thanks to Eileen.

Special thanks to Moddie for lending me her IPhone to take the pictures.  Hmm maybe I need one for myself.  I won't have to carry a camera then, will I?

Happy gardening everyone.