Watering Wisdom
When summer finally arrives, will you be ready to irrigate your gardens efficiently? It may be raining now, but in a month it won't be! The sun will come out, it will get hot and dry and keeping the garden watered will be important. The vegetable crops, flowers, new shrubs and trees will require extra water to keep the new roots growing. It is important to consider finding ways to conserve on water as much as possible. The price of water continues to rise and the availability continues to shrink. Take the time to tune up your soaker hose, drip and sprinkler system now. This is a good time of year to shop for soaker and sprinkler hoses on sale!
Take the time to 'snake' your hoses around your needy plants in the garden. Look for landscape fabric pins to hold them in place on the ground. Shop for a good garden mulch or planting compost to use as a 'cover mulch' on top of the soaker or drip hoses. Take the time to bury the hoses under the mulch. This is an important step in the process! If you do not bury the hoses, the water will evaporate faster than can be used efficiently. Burying them keeps the rubber from decomposing too quickly as well.
Also, plan to purchase a hose timer. They come in handy if you are like me and forget to turn the water off! I have almost learned my lesson. I have been faced with many a high water bill over the years, but not anymore! You will need to experiment for a bit to see how much water and for how long you need to run the water, but in the end you will be happy with yourself for setting up a useful system!
Liz Schwartz, CPH
Duvall True Value Hardware and Garden
