How often should I water my plants?

Everyone wishes they had a healthy, green landscape. The only thing is, if you want a lush landscape, don't you have to use lots and lots of water and isn't that super expensive? The answer is.. it depends. Yes, if you want your own little rainforest in your backyard, you're going to use a lot of water. Yes, water in Southern California can be expensive. However, most people are using at least twice as much water as they need to on their landscape. So, how do you keep your landscape looking green without breaking the bank on your water bill?

The best option is to use a weather-based irrigation controller. Without switching to a weather-based irrigation controller, you'll have to program your control manually and adjust the settings a few times a year. This requires more work, but it's definitely possible.

If you are programming your irrigation controller manually, the first question you should ask yourself is how many days am I watering my plants? If you don't have new plants in your landscape (anything planted less than a year ago), you shouldn't be watering more than three days a week. Yes... even in summer.

Your goal when irrigating your landscape is to make sure the water soaks deep in the soil, while allowing the soil to dry out between watering just enough so your plants aren't drowning in water. If you water your plants every day, they will either die or have a very shallow root system, which is dangerous if you have trees up against your home.

If you water less frequently, but make sure the water can soak into the soil, your plants will develop deeper root systems. The deeper their root systems, the less water you will need to use.

Now that we know how many days to water (3 at the most), you need to determine how many minutes you should water your plants on those days.

Always hire a trained irrigator, especially a certified irrigation technician, to decide how many minutes to leave your irrigation running. It depends a lot on the efficiency of your irrigation system, plant type, sun exposure, slope, soil type, etc. It also depends on irrigation type: drip irrigation, fixed spray sprinklers, rotor/rotary sprinklers, etc.

Without hiring a trained irrigator, you're much more likely to waste water or stress your plants more than you should from lack of water.

Feel free to contact us with more of your landscaping questions or any future projects you're considering.

Best of wishes,

Adams Landscaping, Inc.