Checking your irrigation system periodically to reduce leaks and help conserve water usage. Photo: L Stiles Almost a third of Marin Countys water is used for irrigation. The majority of Marin residents use around 8,000 gallons or less of water per month.
Finding the right irrigation system for your garden is essential to saving our natural resources. Photo: Ivan Horvat, Pixabay Water is a precious resource; conserving it is a key to Earth-friendly gardening.
The most effective irrigation systems are designed, installed, and maintained to distribute water as uniformly as possible and only when and where water is needed. That means applying water where roots can use it.
Topography: This refers to land surfaceshills, slopes, north/south orientation, valleys, rivers, lakes, (natural or artificial features)or buildings. All of these affect air and water flow and can create microclimates in your own yard.
Orange County averages about 13 inches of rain per year (Metropolitan Water District of Orange County), which puts us a few inches away from being a desert, which averages ten inches of rain per year. Recent drought years have focused attention on the amount of water we use in our landscape.
Drip irrigation can be used to water trees, plants in containers, raised beds, and many other landscape situations. The amount of water needed and frequency of application varies greatly depending on plant species, soil conditions, and the local environment.
Irrigation Scheduling Tools This tool, developed by Rueben and Shanti Hofshi, and Ben Faber, has instructions for use and allows you to calculate water needed per tree per day as well as watering time per day or irrigation period.
Water requirements of landscape plants change throughout the year. Daylength, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed all affect the loss of water from soil and plants. In the absence of rain, these losses must be replenished by irrigating.
