Irrigation

The Subdivision across the street from my house has (had) a beautiful stretch of grass along the road. The irrigation system comes on and waters the street every morning. It waters the grass a little as well. The grass was a nice even green. Now it is a nice even beige. My yard gets its water from the sky. It was never an even green, because the weeds and the grass don’t match. Now it is mostly brown, but it has some green.

The irrigation system comes on every day. It even comes on when it is raining. It obviously does not put out enough water to sustain the grass. It probably causes more harm than good by not watering deeply enough. The roots are used to just hanging around at the top of the ground and not digging for water. The weeds and grass in my yard have to work for a living. If they don’t dig, they don’t get any moisture except when it is raining.

If the rain gauge does not show 1” of rain a week, the garden gets watered every day if it hasn’t rained for 2 days. It is watered directly on the plants with a garden hose. The nozzle is set on “shower” for most plants. For the new and tender plants, it is set on “mist”. The water is directed to the plant until it puddles on the soil, then the foliage is sprayed. Some of the tomato plants have milk jugs set into the ground beside them with holes in the bottom. These are filled and the plant’s foliage is sprayed lightly. The milk jugs are the most effective method we have found and their use will be expanded next year.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/