Update – Automatically Watering Plants On Your Deck

We got back from our vacation yesterday and the plants on our deck look great! The hanging baskets and the planters all received enough water and sunshine. Our grass is looking a little dry and I need to start thinking about installing an automatic sprinkler system for our lawn now :-)

Based on my experience just before we headed out on our vacation I have one more pointer to add to the list in my previous post on July 8, 2010.

    Once your drip irrigation is all set up, don’t let anyone play with the water tap. For the watering controller I have if you shut the water off it shuts the system down, so even if you turn the water back on you need to program it again.

I found this out because two days before we left on vacation it was a really hot day and they boys set up a slip and slide in the backyard. This shouldn’t be a problem because I have a splitter at the tap and they were using the second fixture, but when they were finished playing they shut off the whole tap and not just the one they were using.

Luckily I noticed this in the evening and I was able to reprogram it the next morning.

For reference, here is a link to the original post watering your plants while on vacation.

Watering the Plants on Your Deck or Patio While on Vacation

Summer is finally here and we are starting to plan our vacation. One worry I won’t have on this vacation is our hanging baskets and planters getting enough water. This is because a few years ago I installed a drip irrigation system on our deck. It’s setup to water two hanging baskets and four planters.

Please click installing drip irrigation system if you want the details on how I set up the system for the hanging baskets. To add the planters to the system I used a tee connector to split water to a different area and then another tee connector to water each planter. Just remember to adjust each mister when you add a new one to balance the system. I like to ensure the hanging baskets get more water because they usually need it.

Here are a few more pointers when you are setting up your system to go on vacation:

    Run the system once it is installed to understand how long it takes to water your plants and write this time down. Use this time when you are setting irrigation timer.

    I run the water until it starts run out of the bottom of the hanging baskets.

    As the summer gets hotter increase the time you water the plants.

    As the summer cools off you can decrease the time you water the plants.

    Don’t wait until the last day before your vacation before you set up your automatic watering system. With my system, I set the timer and then I had to wait 24 hours to ensure it turns on. You want at least a couple of days to ensure it is working properly.

Good luck and have a great summer.

Save Money and Water with Smart Lawn and Garden Tips

(ARA) – Even if your region is one of the few areas of the country not experiencing repeated drought seasons, it still makes sense environmentally and economically to conserve water as much as possible in your gardening and landscaping efforts.

One way to conserve water is to irrigate efficiently with low-volume irrigation systems and smart watering practices. On average, micro sprinklers and drip irrigation uses 80 to 90 percent less water than traditional irrigation systems.

Irrigation manufacturers like Mister Landscaper are responding to increased consumer demand for low-volume systems by offering micro sprinkler and drip products that homeowners can easily install on their own. Mister Landscaper’s Micro Sprinkler Starter Kits efficiently and slowly irrigate flower and vegetable gardens, as well as areas where trees and shrubs grow. They are available in the plumbing department at Lowe’s Home Improvement stores or online at www.misterlandscaper.com.  The system also offers a variety of retrofit products that allow you to replace or add on to an existing underground pvc sprinkler system so you can convert 120 gallons per hour (gph) heads to a 10 gph micro spray or 1-2gph dripper.

To keep reading – click – drip irrigation

Water Your Plants and Garden the Easy Way – Use a Drip Irrigation System

There are many advantages to having drip irrigation systems for your garden and landscaping. Such a system could help you not only use far less water each month, but also help save money on your water bill.

If you use a lawn sprinkler, you know the routine. Every so often, you have to go out and move it in order to make sure all of your grass is thoroughly watered. And, even though you are going to all that trouble, most of the time there is going to be a spot or two that the sprinkler will miss. This won’t happen when you have a system such as this.

You may be wondering what these systems are, and how they work… and how they could possibly take the place of your trusty garden sprinkler. Well, have you ever seen the hanging baskets that are sold as the self watering type? They have a wick inside the pot that leads down into an area where the liquid used to water the plant gathers. The wick slowly doles out the exact amount of water that the plant needs.

That is how systems such as these work, but on a much larger scale. As a matter of fact, commercial flower and vegetable growers use systems like this in their greenhouses, nurseries, and fields. They need a system that can be depended upon to keep their plants as healthy as possible, and systems such as these fit the bill!

To read the complete article please click on this link – drip irrigation systems