By B.J. Jarvis
Pasco Cooperative Extension Horticulture Agent
In many parts of the country, April showers may bring Mayflowers, but in Florida there usually aren’t too many spring showers. The spring months are typically warm and dry here.
Now is the time to be thinking about the importance of water and how to conserve Florida’s precious water resources. Florida’s legislature designated April as Water Conservation Month many years ago to get us thinking.
Although Pasco County typically receives an average of 52 inches of rainfall per year, the vast majority occurs during just a few months from June through September. With those downpours we may think that the water resources are plentiful, yet we still can’t take water for granted!
Citizens need water for cooking, bathing and other indoor necessities, but we also use about half of all water outdoors. What can we do in the garden to assure that our water use is wise?
No great sacrifices are needed because a water-wise garden combines subtle features that maximize and conserve the rainfall we do get. Here are ten simple tips for using water more wisely.
Before the garden weeds get a good stronghold, mulch with two to three-inch layer of wood chips, leaves or needles. Keep back a couple inches from the stem or trunk of trees and shrubs.
A $3 rain gauge to determine how much rain has actually fallen in your garden. Use Florida-friendly landscaping practices in your yard this spring.
When replacing winter-killed trees, shrubs and perennials, choose drought-tolerant plants.
Catch rainwater in a rain barrel or consider a cistern for even larger quantities.
For those with an automatic sprinkler system, check times to make sure systems runs within the restrictions. Also, there was a time change recently, so make sure the system is reading the same time as your watch.
Also manually check each irrigation zone to assure correct coverage and operation.
Calibrate sprinklers zones to apply 3/4-inch of water per run time. This is a one-time process and can be different for each zone because of spacing and pressures, so be sure to run through them all.
If a sprinkler zone covers just plantings such as shrubs and flowers, consider retrofitting with low volume micro-irrigation heads that deliver water right to the root zone to save up to half of all water used outdoors.
Do not hose down your driveway or sidewalk. Use a broom to clean leaves and other debris from these areas. Using a hose to clean a driveway can waste hundreds of gallons of water.
For more information on how to save water in the garden year-round, e-mail for a free landscape water conservation calendar.
-Opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer only and not that of the publisher.
B.J. Jarvis is horticulture agent and director of the Pasco Cooperative Extension Service, a part of the University of Florida and Pasco County government. She can be reached at .
