Landscape irrigation is the application of water to landscape. It keep gardens thriving, it requires management of irrigation application. The following tips will help in keeping a health looking landscape appearance. 

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Studies show that plants utilize root zone water efficiently during morning hours, watering early in the day, the roots love it. Water applied during the heat of the day much is lost to evaporation. Watering during evening or nighttime hours are acceptable, but plants are susceptible to fungus diseases, so irrigation application needs to be  controlled so over watering does not created fungus diseases in your landscape root zones. 

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Water as deeply and as infrequently as possible. Watering deep and infrequent encourages  plants to develop a deep root system, which in turn increases drought tolerance, since the soil dries from the surface down to the root bottom. Frequently irrigating in short cycles encourages a shallow root system growth which will suffer from every gap in irrigation application.

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Duration of watering time depends on the soil—and the vegetation growing In an “average” loam, one inch of irrigation will penetrate roughly a foot. Sandy soil, penetration will be deeper, in a clay soil, not as deep, proper drainage in the growing median is highly recommended.

 

Established shrubs in the loam, deep irrigation once per week should be adequate application during the growing season. Clay soils hold water longer, Take care not to over water, it will exclude necessary oxygen from the soil medium.

Plants have different water needs. Some plants will thrive in a soil that retains water, but many other plants require a thorough drying between watering cycles, if at all possible, group plants of similar water needs together.

 

Lawns, there is no substitute for overhead irrigation application. Shrub beds, vegetable and herb gardens and fruit trees, drip irrigation is  superior—the plants receive a slow, metered irrigation application, which is not as susceptible to losses from evaporation and overspray. 

 

Because the water application is regulated on the ground, waist of water is minimal. You position emitters to focus water where the plants need it, you control application by regulating the time the irrigation system runs and emitters’ delivery capacity (rated -gallons per hour). 

 

Besides water conservation, the prime advantage of drip systems is flexibility. You can customize the system to water individual plants by providing each with its own emitter(s), or you can distribute water over larger areas using micro sprayers. A standard layout might include hookups to 2 or more sprinkler irrigation valves and various parts. Because irrigation drip lines are above ground (they’re easily concealed with mulch) and made of flexible materials, changing and repairing the system is easy, just add or remove lines and emitters as needed to customize system needs and stability. 

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Water savings from drip irrigation systems can easily be 50% or more versus traditional sprinkler systems. 

Keep in mind that sprinklers and drip emitters apply water at different delivery methods (measured in gallons per minute and gallons per hour).

 

It’s best to put sprinklers and drip emitters on different landscape irrigation valves to ensure pressure stability in the irrigation system. Also, a drip system requires a pressure regulator to limit pressure to the system and a filter to insure the emitter openings do not clog.

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