Is Drip Irrigation a Service I Should Look into Getting for My Property?
Drip irrigation is an essential service that will be a game-changer for your property.
We wanted to dedicate an entire blog to it because it is a valuable service offered here at Ruff and Ready Landscape Construction.
This week’s blog will focus on how drip irrigation can potentially help with water being a significant problem for your lawn or landscape. So, we want to discuss it through four main points:
- How can water cause issues on your property?
- Drip Irrigation vs. Sprinkler Systems
- Benefits of drip irrigation
- Why is a professional needed to fix the problem?
What is a mistake people make with their lawns?
Believe it or not, the one consistent mistake people make with their lawns is how they water them. We understand that watering a property seems like an effortless task, but many factors come into play and are often overlooked when it comes to watering your lawn.
The crazy part of it all is that there are two possible ways to make a mistake when watering your lawn. You can over-water your lawn, or you can under-water your lawn!
The main factor behind it is mother nature!
You can find our full blog on watering and other lawn care mistakes here.
What is the proper amount of water for my lawn?
Most lawn care is based on your individual property. However, certain parts of lawn care are universal, such as the height of your grass for mowing. Another one of the universal facts of your lawn care is the amount of water that is necessary for your lawn.
For a healthy and established lawn that does not need support or care, the proper amount of water for that is an inch a week. The mother nature factor that leads to mistakes being made is that the inch of water each week includes the weekly rainfall.
People do not often consider the rainfall amounts of the week when watering their lawns, leading to overwatering.
How can I keep track of the water amounts on my lawn?
The primary way in which you can keep track of the water amounts on your lawn is by checking your turf for water buildup or dryness. If your lawn has excessive water buildup, then it has been overwatered, so you would not add more water to it. You may also want to sweep or remove the excess water away or find a way to transfer that water to your drainage system if you have one. You want to at least remove the excess water from your lawn because it can invite lawn disease and pests onto your property.
The disease will most likely occur when the lower and cooler temperatures (often at night) combine with your wet, moist, over-watered lawn, not allowing enough time to absorb the water. Then when you go to water the following day or day, you run the chance of overwatering your lawn or causing even more water buildup by watering for that day and not noticing the water already present on your lawn.
If your lawn happens to be too dry, this often occurs in the summer, when your lawn did not get the proper amount of water. The next step here is to water your lawn. You should water your lawn in the morning in the summer months, allowing it to be absorbed in the afternoon. Reminder: You do not want your lawn to still be wet during the night. A wet lawn at night tends to breed diseases and attract unwanted pests and insects.
The entire process of checking your lawn proves that you have to consistently do it to make sure you are maintaining your turf correctly for optimal health.
If your lawn is unhealthy and full of disease or pests, your landscape will not be able to flourish for the season or year and will lead to the overall death and demise of your landscape.
What are some options to help with my water problems?
The first “quick fix” is having a sprinkler system installed on your lawn. Set it up to a timer, and it will water your lawn daily on schedule. However, as easy and helpful as a sprinkler system can be, it is sometimes not your best option. Sprinkler systems cannot always be 100% accurate when it comes to watering your lawn. This is due to multiple reasons:
- Sprinklers shoot water disproportionately, leaving spots on your property to not get enough water
- If you have tall grass or plants, it stops the water from reaching the plants behind it due to the height of the water coming out of the sprinkler system.
As helpful and convenient as a sprinkler system is, there is a better option.
A drip irrigation system reads all the water amounts on your property and waters all your plant life with their individually correct water amounts. Drip irrigation systems can be set up and installed to run via your WIFI and smart devices in your home, such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. Not only will it keep track of water amounts, but it will also separate the quantities of water throughout your property to ensure each plant gets the water required to thrive and flourish, including potted plants and hanging plants.
Because each plant gets just the right amount of hydration, there is no wasting water. This means that you can significantly cut your water costs and save money in the future.
Remember, the proper way to receive all these incredible benefits from a drip irrigation service would be to have professionals like us do the service for you!
So, make sure you call in professionals for the service to get the best results and get a boost in the overall value of your property!
If you are a resident of Menifee, Winchester, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, or Temecula, CA, or any of their bordering areas, call Ruff and Ready Landscape Construction and ask about lawn maintenance services!