Watering your plants can be quite a daunting task, especially if you’ve built an empire around your property, and you are only armed with one watering can or a hose with a limited stretching range. A good thing to know and add in your garden is an economic and sure-fire way to keep your plants watered and soils moist without the need to buy expensive sprinkler systems.
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2 Major Alternative Watering Methods
After considering all these factors, let me introduce two major alternative watering methods that don’t require purchasing a sprinkler system. These are irrigation systems that require much effort, or with a more straightforward method of watering with a certain improvement to the garden hose.
You can apply two major types of irrigation depending on how much ground you have to cover–drip/trickle irrigation and surface irrigation.
1) Drip/Trickle Irrigation
This is a cost- and water-efficient irrigation system that makes use of micro-irrigation techniques. From its name, drip or trickle, water is continuously dripping from emitters directly to the position of the roots of the plants you want to water. The rate of dripping is relatively low but is suitable for all types of soil as well as keeps up with the water distribution rate of the plants.
This is a traditional yet effective approach that not only saves money but conserves at least 20%-50% more water than with the sprinkling system. Also, Horticulturists found that this system also boosted the number of crops than with sprinklers. This is mainly because the water is directed to the position of the roots. At the same time, sprinkling wastes droplets on the leaves and ground surfaces that will most likely evaporate before reaching the soil and even motivate weeds to grow in the surrounding area.
2) Surface Irrigation
This is usually applied for larger, wide-scale grounds that stretch over acres like farms and employs a variety of irrigation strategies for the water to be equally distributed with gravity flow having the central role. Simply to say, you are going to control the flooding over the whole grounds.
Under this category is another technique called ‘Border Technique.’ Border technique is usually utilized for flat planted crops on leveled fields that are sloped to one side. Another is Furrow Irrigation, which makes use of trenches or canals between crop rows like a network leading to the farming plots.
Most Economical Methods of Watering Lawn Without Sprinkler System
Building your water irrigation system is quite the challenge right from the onset since determining the type of watering system and considering a lot of factors will put you through a lot of planning on where to dig and how to set it up. Despite the labor-intensive effort you need to make this work, once it’s done, you’ll be able to simply sit back and relax while this ingenuity does your work for you.
1) Adding a Remote Hose Connection
If not a watering can, you’ll use a simple water hose for watering your plants. The downside of this is that you’ll end up overwatering some of the plants or even depriving some. Nowadays, people have improved the design of the hose for a more efficient way of controlling water from a faucet, why not try doing a remote hose connection.
This technique will depend on the length of your hose and the additional materials you need to purchase to make this work. Some who prefer a more straightforward design, will just put the length of the hose against the lining of a fence with pipe straps, and another way is burrowing the rest of the pipe underground, and with a vacuum breaker from the house, you can simply turn the valve.
2) Using A Long Garden Hose
Garden hoses are a versatile tool in the garden with or without a sprinkler system. This can enhance or supplement your sprinkler system by merely connecting from its valve and with a nozzle, spray water through your garden. If you’re covering a wider space, it would be helpful if you separate this into sections so you will not miss anything.
3) Hover Wand System
A hover wand is a watering tool that is a light, long, thin piece of tubing ending in a special nozzle with holes drilled into it so that it can dribble water over plants and the hose is attached on the opposite side of it from the faucet. The pressure will come from the water source, and then it propels through its thin body, much like a jet.
Other Effective Tips for Watering the Lawn
The ones mentioned above are just some of the most economical approach to watering your plants to maintain your garden efficiently. Having these systems and techniques handy ease the labor and are more practical, especially if you’re going away on a trip or vacation, you won’t need to cut it short and worry that your plants aren’t watered right.
- Sprinkler systems have gained quite the popularity because of the efficiency it delivers with its in-built timer along with some improvements like motion detectors to scare away intruders. It almost goes unnoticed in a garden since it is embedded into the ground making this is a worthwhile buy.
- If you find the irrigation systems that go underground complex and backbreaking in terms of labor, it would be suggestible to buy a revolving sprinkler, which is also ideal for lawns. This sprinkler waters your plants in a pulsating action. At the same time, it rotates at high speed, preventing evaporation from the heat and evading wind influence in comparison to oscillating sprinklers since they only distribute water continuously in a single pattern or direction can easily be parred by strong gusts of wind.
Factors To Consider For Choosing The Most Suitble Watering Method
Before having an elaborate yet effective watering system, here are some factors to consider:
Lawn Size
Of course, since this should be your basis on how much material for the grounds you need to cover. Knowing the size of your land weighs an important factor in what you need to invest and how much the materials you are going to use–whether it is a hose, faucets, tubes, etc.
Soil Type
Along with many other things that your plants are dependent on, your soil type is one of the most crucial factors you need to consider. Plant and soil types are indicative of how often you will need to water them and how much water they need. Depending on the texture of the soil also indicates how it retains water. If you end up watering too much and it is a type of moist soil, it will drown and destroy the plant or seeds, and water too little, your plants will dry up and die.
Climate & Seasons
One of the inevitable factors that gardeners and horticulturists keep track is the path of the sun through the passing seasons of the year–when to expect rain or shine since this poses a major factor for your soil. For beginning gardeners, this is advised to be one of the foundational considerations since depending on the season, climate and path of the sun dictates the kind of plant that will thrive on the soil you have, as well as how much sunlight it’s going to get on location in your garden. Of course, if it’s too hot, your plants will need more water, and you’ll need to adjust the watering frequency.
Type of Grass
There are also a variety of grasses that differ in the amount of water it needs and also frequency. Grasses help to retain and conserve water throughout the day, which contributes to the distribution of water resources to the plants in your garden.
Lawn Mowing Schedule
And lastly, your schedule for mowing your grass also contributes to maintaining your properly coordinated watering system.
The longer the grass, the harder it is to water your plants, the higher the amount of water it needs, and the water will take much longer to reach the ground. So, making sure that your grass is cut on schedule ensures the maintenance of your garden.
Conclusion
As you may have observed, time is of the essence in gardening and watering plays a big part in the continuous provision of sustenance to your plants which makes it one of the main reasons why people are vying for newer techniques and tools to make the job easier and more efficient than laboriously going back and forth with a watering can or dragging a garden hose around the yard.
