Want more reasons to conserve water? If environmental sustainability isn’t enough, know that conserving the water that you use will save you money over time. Plus, optimizing water usage creates a hardy and lush landscape. For more ways to save water and create an efficient greenspace, talk to landscaping professionals in the Charleston area.
Watering your Greenspaces
Your greenspaces and landscape will receive some water naturally from the environment, but you will need to reinforce this with regular irrigation practices. Conserving water cuts down on costs, but also demonstrates water stewardship that reduces your overall carbon footprint. Utilize the inherent climate of the Carolinas in conjunction with regular, prudent watering to give your plants what they need to thrive and prosper.
Environmental Tactics
If you live in the low-country, you can expect rain. Make the most of this natural water with rain gardens, composed of native species that can absorb and withstand heavy precipitation. Use rain barrels to gather water during the wet season, typically winter, to recycle when watering your beds and gardens. In fact, if you are not harvesting water during rainy weather in the south, you are wasting natural resources and washing money away with it.
Some other tips:
- Mulch preserves moisture in your plants’ roots, which conserves water. Buy recycled pine, cedar, and red mulch to cover plants, beds, and trunks. When mulching trees or shrubs, leave an inch or so around the trunk without mulch for best results.
- Poking holes or aerating the soil helps it to better absorb the rain, condensation, and moisture from the natural surroundings.
- Use cement or other porous material to pave your driveway, walkways, or patios to help absorb run-off during rainy weather, which helps give your garden time to absorb and utilize the water more effectively.
Ideal Irrigation
Depending on the size of your landscape, you will likely need an irrigation system that is both efficient and effective. If you have an old or impaired system, updating it can reduce run-off and curb costs. It is well-worth the investment to install a sensor to detect rain, turning the system off as needed to conserve water.
Talk to your local garden and landscape design professional to assess and reconfigure your landscape to best suit the natural environment and features. Landscapes change and evolve, which may make your current plants, gardens, or beds less pragmatic and more work over the course of time; instead of altering your irrigation system, adjust your landscape and plants to suit the elements. Change can be a good thing.
Ready to start saving money and conserve water? Talk to the experts at Terra Bella Garden Center, in Charleston, to learn more. Why waste natural resources and your hard-earned money? Adapt and adjust your irrigation to be effective and efficient, resulting in a hardy, lush landscape.
