3 Landscaping Tips To Conserve Water While Still Keeping Up With The Jones'

5 October 2016
 Categories: , Blog

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Home ownership can be challenging. Not only do you need to finish, decorate, and maintain your home's interior, but you should also place time and energy into the exterior. Considering landscaping is an important part of your home's curb appeal and value, ensuring it is maintained is smart for protecting your investment. In addition, maintaining your landscaping will also make sure your home is as appealing as your neighbors'. Unfortunately, your landscape will require a large amount of water to keep it attractive and healthy.

While surprising to learn, the average American family uses 320 gallons of water each day, and an estimated 30 percent of this water usage is for the outdoors. Watering your lawn, flowerbeds, shrubs, and trees is important, but it can become wasteful and costly. To make sure your landscape keeps up with the Jones' without a great deal of waste, consider these 3 water-conserving landscaping tips.

Fill Your Beds

Once established, your flowers, shrubs, and trees will need water every few days to keep them healthy. Thankfully, surrounding these plants with the right material will help trap in moisture, reducing the need for ongoing watering.

Consider surrounding plants in your flowerbed with mulch or pine straw.  Filling the beds with either mulch or pine straw will also keep the plants' roots cool, which improves their survival during warmer temperatures.

Irrigate Smart

Watering your lawn and landscaping beds using a hose can be time-consuming and excessive. Although it may seem like a large expense, a drip irrigation system installed in your yard is a worthwhile investment for maintaining your landscaping in a water-efficient manner. Unfortunately, most homeowners are not familiar with a drip irrigation system and how it is more efficient compared to the traditional sprinkler system that your neighbors may have.

A drip irrigation system that is installed in your yard properly can apply small doses of water and fertilizer to your lawn, shrubs, flowers, and trees. The water and fertilizer can be applied to your landscape in an efficient, low-pressure, and uniform manner, keeping the plant roots and soil moist without waste.

On average, a drip irrigation system can supply your landscape with one to four gallons of water per hour. This water soaks the roots and soil, preventing the overwatering that can wash away mulch, straw, and landscaping pebbles. For more information on drip irrigation, contact a company like H2O Lawn Sprinklers.

Limit Your Turf

Your neighbors will most likely have a large lawn, which they water, fertilize, and mow regularly. While a green lawn improves your home's curb appeal, it requires a great deal of maintenance. To reduce the amount of water you need to maintain your lawn, consider reducing the amount of grass you have in your landscape.

As an alternative to a large amount of grass, create a large bed in your lawn. Use mulch, pine straw, or rocks as the base, and add a few wood chairs or benches to the space. Plant a few trees in this natural area for shade, if preferred. If you already have landscaping beds in your yard, make them bigger to reduce the size of your lawn.

Removing your turf may seem like an excessive way of conserving water. However, incorporating more natural areas using mulch, pine straw, and landscaping pebbles and rocks will enhance your curb appeal in an eco-friendly, cost-effective manner.

Whether you want to improve your home's curb appeal or just keep up with the Jones', your landscaping should be a priority. Fortunately, you do not have to waste an excessive amount of water to ensure your lawn, flowers, shrubs, and trees remain healthy. With these tips, your landscape will be appealing in a water-efficient way.