The drought is real. Do you think watering your lawn and landscape is the cause? Think again.
Residential watering accounts for only 9% of the state’s water use. Watering your landscape is not the cause nor is cutting back the solution.
Not watering your landscape will have ill effects for decades. Neglecting to water your lawn, means your trees are not receiving the constant water supply they once received. What this means is that the roots are drying up and dying off, slowly weakening your trees. Take a look around and count how many trees have dying or dead branches near the top or do not look as full as they normally would this time of year. Although most trees have an extensive roots system, most urban trees are dependent on the water YOU give them when you water your lawn and shrubs. The trees send out little roots to look for water and these roots or soft and require a moist environment. Suddenly shutting off your irrigation system causes these roots to dry up and die, which can be detrimental to the health of the tree. With these roots drying up the tree slowly become weak as the one healthy roots die off. This makes the tree less stable. Wait until we have the Santa Ana winds after a good rain storm, there will be many trees that will be uprooted and gone forever due to lack of water.
If you have cut back your watering schedule, think about the trees. At the very least water your trees twice a week by providing a slow drip for an hour or more around the drip line (drip line is the outer perimeter of the trees branches) of the tree.
Watering your landscape now, while you still have a landscape to water is important to the health of the micro-environment which lives in your established landscape. Watering your landscape will help keep the plants healthy and prevent run off and possible mini mudslides with the predicted upcoming El Niño rainy season.
You can let your grass die off, but do what you can to save the shrubs and trees. Trees and shrubs take many years to mature and cannot easily be replaced.
Adding just 3″ inches of mulch around your plants can cut down your watering needs by 30%. THIRTY PERCENT!!! That’s 100’s of gallons of water you can save by simply adding and maintaining several inches of mulch or compost.
Ill talk more about the mulch and compost soon.
If you have any questions, please comment below and I will answer then as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading.