So one of your hobbies is gardening, which happens to be placed at your own backyard. The plants may be flowers, herbs and vegetables, or even fruits in vines. Regardless, any plants just need water for them to grow and remain healthy.
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However, during summer months, the amount of water needed is doubled or tripled. You want to make sure that your plants get enough water and prevent heat from the sun. Of course, what’s come to mind is to increase your bucket of water or use the water hose more often. The downside is that your water bill is going to increase too. How are you going to balance the use of water and your bill? Here are some tips and reminders that you can consider if you want to save some money while watering your garden during summer season.
1. Pick the Best Time
There is always a great time to water plants in your garden. That is during the cool morning or evening so it helps prevent or minimize evaporation. This makes it easier for you as a home gardener to maintain the coolness of your plants.
In addition to this, dig a few centimeters into the soil and check if it is moist or not. If it is still moist, you need to wait for several hours or a few days before you can water the plants. If not moist anymore, you can water it but be sure it is close enough the base of the plants and not on the leaves. The tendency of this watering technique is to maximize the water needed by the essential part of plants, which is the root.
Another strategic and wise watering of plants is to have a long process dripping the water into the plants. Believe it or not, this helps in the development of the deep root systems of the plants, because they become a lot more drought-tolerant.
2. Add Fertilizers
The more fertilizers are used, the less water needed. If you place some organic fertilizers to your plants, the soil is basically given additional nutrients. How can this be helpful in the reduction of water use? Well, fertilizers help the soil retain water. Instead of watering three times or more in a day, you may just have to do that twice, or even once, as long as there are enough fertilizers added to the soil of the plants.
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3. Create Mulch
Aside from fertilizers, mulch is also useful and beneficial not only to the plants but also to your pocket. When you create mulch, whether from grass clippings, leaves, straw or other garden waste that is shredded, it slows down or hinders the growth of weed. Plus, it has more ability to provide nutrients to the soil. Consequently, it is going to reduce water evaporation, so this is another water-wise option for you as a gardener.
Before you add mulch, make sure that the plants are grouped together based on their classifications in terms of requiring water. This means that plants that are most thirsty have to be grouped together in the same line or area, while others are in a separate row. This is much easier for you to water them, especially if you use some tools for irrigation.
4. Utilize the Right Tools
Speaking of tools, there is a need to use some devices that can help minimize the use of water or reduce evaporation. The best ones to use are trigger nozzles, aqua or water spikes, and drip irrigation. A trigger nozzle helps you control the amount of water to use, and this is a good tool that makes watering plants longer. The aqua spike, also called as water spike, is also helpful. You can leave water on a plastic bottle that is attached to the spike and let it drips for hours. This does not only maintain coolness even during summer days, but also helps you leave it so you can do other household chores. That is a time saving way to water plants too. If you have a large are of garden, drip irrigation is something you can rely on. Other than these, you may use irrigation timers and watering wands too.
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5. Re-Use Dirty or Grey Water
The simplest and cheapest way to water your plants is to re-use some of the water from showering or bathing, and washing clothes on the machine. Everytime you shower, you may place a big basin and stand over there to collect all the water, than to let it go down to the holes in your bathroom. Just do not use water with soap because this is not going to be beneficial to plants. Even the water used from bath tubs and washing machine is also re-usable for your garden.
Without really anything much to do, these five points are something to consider. They are very helpful enough to keep your plants moist. Doing this does not also give bad effect to your water bill. In fact, you can save more if you are able to do these regularly everytime you need to water or take care of your plants. With these in mind, you can have more reasons and motivation to continue growing each and every plant you have in your home garden. It is surely a lot more fun to nourish your plants if you follow these watering strategies. It is something worth trying just in case you haven’t.
