Living in Georgia I’m keenly aware of water waste thanks to the current Georgia Water Crisis. Due to our most recent drought, the second this decade, watering restrictions prevent watering of lawns between certain times and on certain days depending on your address. While out subdivision requires in ground sprinklers, the brains of the sprinkler system given by the builder is deficient and can only be scheduled by day. The INSTEON 8-Zone Sprinkler Controller can make your sprinkler system smart by checking to with various sensors to determine if the sprinkler’s should come on. For example, hook up a wind sensor and if the wind is above 10mph, suspend watering as you’ll probably end up watering concrete and your neighbors lawn or hook up a water sensor and if it’s rained recently you can suspend watering.
In addition to saving water while maintaining a green landscape, you should consider modifying your landscape so it’s drought-tolerant. Also, you can help you plants use less water by cutting back the annuals and perennials. Don’t fertilize or otherwise stress your plants during a drought and set your mower blade a little higher. Slightly raising your lawn mower’s blades can make a huge difference encouraging deeper rooting. By cutting the grass higher the lawn survival rates increase as water demand decreases. Sharpened blades also help reduce the need for water because dull blades shred leaf tips requiring the turf to drink more water.
An excellent combatant of drought conditions is mulch. You should cover the entire area from the trunk to the ends of branches with pine straw, bark chips or shredded hardwood mulch. My mulch of choice is redwood which is expensive in Georgia, but if you’re trying to keep your budget low use the mulch that is indigenous to your location (pine trees are everywhere here so pinestraw costs less in Georgia). You can place newspapers underneath the mulch to retain soil moisture too. You should consider aerating your lawn as well as aeration improves the movement of water and nutrients into the soil.
Another way to save water is by setting up collectors around your house. For example you can route the water that is expelled from your air conditioner and collect bucket fulls every day. Also, it’s amazing how much you can collect using a rain barrel connected to your downspouts.
These tips along with hooking your sprinkler system into a home automation system can help your lawn stay beautiful while requiring less water.
Gimmie!
Suggested Price: $124.99
If you’re one of the many folks in the world who likes their cereal crunchy, and doesn’t like it getting soggy, but constantly pouring milk into the bowl a little bit at a time is a pain, then you need the EatMeCrunchy bowl. It’s pretty simple as these “why didn’t i think of it” inventions usually are – it’s a shelf that sits in a bowl that covers about 70% of the base, so that your milk sits in the bottom and your dry (and still crunchy) cereal sits on the shelf just waiting for you to push it into the milk for the right amount of mixing.
