Discover how to keep your backyard healthy and environmentally friendly
Maintaining a sustainable backyard can be difficult during summer months. However, you can keep your yard green and healthy without water waste by implementing these four tips.
Take advantage of native plants
Keeping your backyard healthy and vibrant starts with the plants you’re using. In order to more easily save water while maintaining a backyard, try using plants that are native to your region.
Native plants are conditioned to survive and thrive in even the harshest conditions of that region, which means they require less care. While native plants are grown to stand up to harsh regional conditions, you will still need to perform general maintenance to keep them in good health.
When using different types of native plants in the landscape, try to group plants that have similar sun, soil and water needs for the best results.
If you aren’t sure which plants are right for your landscape, check out this handy plants guide from the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association. This excellent plant selection tool features photos and information charts for more than 200 low-water-use plants for Central Arizona.
Try soil amendments
If you love the look of green grass but want to save water, try using soil amendments such as Holganix, AquaSmart PRO, and Mirimichi Green.
Holganix works like a probiotic for your soil, helping plants develop deeper root systems and a resistance to disease and insect damage by lowering the need for pesticides and herbicides. Integrating Holganix into your soil also helps plants increase the uptake of nutrients and water so you won’t have to water as much.
AquaSmart PRO and Mirimichi Green help your plants’ soil retain water and prevent nutrient loss—when important nutrients seep below the plants’ rooting zone—by absorbing excess water for plants to use during watering restrictions and hot days. This allows you to use less water, but maintain the look and health of your plants.
Use a variety of watering systems
If your backyard is home to a variety of plants such as grass, shrubs, trees, and flowers using the same watering techniques will only cause waste and could potentially damage your plants. To keep them healthy, use different irrigation techniques for each plant type.
For more even water distribution on grass, use water-efficient sprinkler nozzles like the MP Rotator.
To keep shrubs and flowerbeds growing strong while using less water, convert traditional sprinklers into drip irrigation to get water down to the roots.
Get smart about irrigation
Another important factor in sustainable backyard maintenance is ensuring your irrigation system is watering at the right times and duration.
Smart controllers, such as the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, the Hunter Pro-HC with Hydrawise and the Rain Bird ESP-TM2 with LNK Wi-Fi Module allow you or your landscape contractor to control your irrigation system from anywhere, gain data on your irrigation system, and start or stop your irrigation controller from the palm of your hand.
From time to time, Water – Use It Wisely features guest bloggers who write about topics related to water and water conservation. The author of this post, Adreana Young, is a content specialist with Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply.
About Ewing
Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply is the largest family-owned supplier of landscape and water management products in the country. As your business partner, we offer products and education for irrigation and landscape, turf and land management, outdoor living, sports fields, golf and sustainable solutions. Our nationwide network of friendly, knowledgeable staff helps green industry professionals discover products and services for business success.