Water is essential — not only for life itself, but also to support Florida’s landscapes, recreational activities and beautiful vistas.
Residents and tourists enjoy our waterways and participate in recreational activities such as fishing, swimming and boating.
We use water from public municipalities and private wells for household, industrial and agricultural uses.
Water also is necessary for wildlife, our environment and our quality of life. However, more than 50 percent of the water we consume at home is used to irrigate lawns and landscapes.
Dr. Laura Warner, from the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, put it like this: “A message for residents is that we can have beautiful landscapes that increase the value of our homes, provide habitat for pollinators and animals, (provide) a place to socialize with friends and family – and we can do all that while saving water.”
Follow these steps to keep lawns and landscapes healthy, while conserving water at the same time:
- Water your landscape during the coolest part of the day, or in the evening, to reduce water loss through evaporation. Watering in the morning coincides closely with the dew point and reduces the window of time water stays on plant leaves.
- Calibrate your irrigation system to deliver 1/2-inch water to 3/4-inch water per irrigation event. Overwatering lawns harms long-term turf health. Overwatering greatly increases disease susceptibility and thatch buildup, and also leads to a shorter root system, which reduces the turf’s overall stress tolerance and ability to survive with less water. It also promotes the growth of certain weed species, such as dollarweed and sedges.
- If you have a rain gauge, and it indicates your yard has received equal or greater 1/2-inch water to 3/4-inch of water, you don’t need to provide additional water through irrigation. Shut off or adjust your irrigation system when you get plenty of rain. The simple practice of checking an inexpensive rain gauge to track rainfall, and then adjusting your irrigation system, can save gallons of water, can keep your lawn and landscape healthy, and can reduce disease potential from fungus and other problems.
- Check your irrigation system seasonally to calibrate the system. Repair or replace broken sprinkler heads, and ensure valves open and close properly.
- Plan your irrigation based on plant needs and zones. For example, turfgrass requires more irrigation than landscape beds with established trees. Turfgrass growing in the shade requires less water than turfgrass growing in full sun. Adjust areas like these to save water and to keep plants healthy. Homes that average 35 percent turf and 65 percent landscape beds use 39 percent less water when compared to homes with more turf and fewer landscape beds. The potential savings is 1,440 gallons to 1,800 gallons of water per week based on watering your landscape twice a week.
- Apply a layer of mulch that is 2-inches to 3-inches thick in your landscape beds and vegetable gardens using pine straw, pine nuggets or melaleuca mulch. Mulch provides many benefits. It conserves soil moisture, keeps plant roots cool, adds organic matter to the soil and improves soil texture as it breaks down over time. Reduce splashing water, as it can move disease-causing fungal spores to plant leaves. A layer of mulch at the base of landscape plants reduces splashing water from sprinkler systems and rain.
- Choose drought-tolerant plants. Consult the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Guide to Plant Selection and Landscape Design for ideas.
- Be aware that container plants that dry out quickly benefit from micro-irrigation systems. There are patio micro-irrigation kits that direct water to each pot and at the base of plants.
- When it rains, water collects and moves quickly across gutters, driveways and other nonpervious surfaces. A benefit of pervious surfaces is they allow rainwater to percolate down into the soil and recharge the aquifer. Reduce the volume of rainwater that contributes to stormwater runoff by installing rain barrels and using pervious surfaces such as mulched paths in your landscape.
- If you have an irrigation system, install a rain shutoff device.
- Let your lawn tell you when to water. Look for folded grass blades, footprints or tire tracks that remain on the grass, and a bluish tint to the grass. The University of Florida/IFAS recommends delivering 1/2-inch water to 3/4-inch of water to your lawn and landscape per irrigation event, which provides enough water to reach the root zone.
- Follow water restrictions and guidelines set forth by your county or city municipality and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Nicole Pinson is the Urban Horticulture Agent in Hillsborough County.
Published August 1, 2018
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