Is it me, or does it seem like every Summer the past few years in New Jersey we are in a drought situation at some point?
Mother Nature is definitely doing her share to make sure we have enough water, so shouldn’t we try and conserve water usage with our lawn sprinkler systems? All of us in the state of New Jersey should follow these simple steps listed below to NOT WASTE water on our lawns.
- There is NO need to water daily, UNLESS you have just planted seed, planted new landscaping or installed sod! Every 2nd to 3rd day with a properly designed sprinkler system is sufficient. I run my sprinkler and set my clients sprinkler systems to run Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2 a.m.
- Spray Heads (fixed heads, usually found near landscaping or very small areas) run an average of 10-15 minutes max. THAT’S ALL THEY NEED!
- Rotary Heads (rotating lawn heads) run an average of 30-40 minutes a zone.
- Certain shrub areas may be well established and these heads/zones may be turned off. (Think about it, there aren’t any sprinkler systems in the woods correct? Established plants will do just fine with rainfall.)
- Make sure you are watering shrub areas and lawn areas on different zones. Spray Heads and Rotary Heads produce different GPM’s and only a poorly designed system will have a mixture of these heads on the same zone.
- If it has rained within 24 hours of the next scheduled watering cycle, depending on rainfall amounts (a 5 minute shower doesn’t count) turn your irrigation system off for that day if not for 2 days.
- If you don’t have a Rain Sensor currently in working order installed on your lawn sprinkler system, you should think about having one installed or replace the non-working one.
There are many things we can do in our daily lives to conserve water if we just take a minute to think about it. Some may require some serious thought, but conserving water with your lawn sprinkler system is quite simple with the above steps.
