By: Annie Spiegelman

This summer, with a plethora of states across the country experiencing drought conditions, learning about low-volume watering is crucial to having your yard survive the dry months. This simply means applying water to a uniform depth directly to the plant’s root zone. This reduces water waste and your water bill at the same time. It’s win-win. But first, let’s make sure you’re soil is helping you by holding all the moisture it can.

What’s Up with your Soil?

Before changing anything having to do with your irrigation system, add 2-3 inches of compost (either homegrown or purchased at the plant nursery or Waste Management site) on top of your soil. Do this once or twice a year preferably in the fall and spring. You don’t even have to dig it in. Digging is so old school! The microorganisms in the compost will nourish your soil doing the underground work for you. Incorporating compost (organic matter) increases the water-holding capacity of your soil. With sandy soil, you’ll lose less water to the subsoil and with compacted clay soil, water will easily and slowly trickle its way to the plant’s roots, instead of sitting on the top floor, uselessly, like a lump on a log.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 1:56 pm and is filed under My Local, My Planet, My Soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.