This relatively brief article was posted in 2009. As one can figure, water concerns are huge where the issues, technologies and landscape designs in this post take place – Reno.

In a later post I deliver the general amounts from “water audits” – all the rage out there and an assessment of one home’s water usage, dealing with irrigation and in-home usage from showers, dishwashers and the normal functional scenarios of our everyday existence. It’s sort of shocking.

From this article:

“Raising irrigation water efficiency typically means shifting from the less efficient flood or furrow system to overhead sprinklers or drip irrigation, the gold standard of irrigation efficiency. Switching from flood or furrow to low-pressure sprinkler systems reduces water use by an estimated 30 percent, while switching to drip irrigation typically cuts water use in half. A drip system also raises yields because it provides a steady supply of water with minimal losses to evaporation. Since drip systems are both labor-intensive and water-efficient, they are well suited to countries with a surplus of labor and a shortage of water.

A few small countries—Cyprus, Israel, and Jordan—rely heavily on drip irrigation. Among the big three agricultural producers, this more-efficient technology is used on 1–3 percent of irrigated land in India and China and on roughly 4 percent in the United States.

In recent years, small-scale drip-irrigation systems—virtually a bucket that relies on gravity to distribute the water through flexible plastic tubing—have been developed to irrigate small vegetable gardens with roughly 100 plants (covering 25 square meters). Somewhat larger drum systems irrigate 125 square meters. Large-scale drip systems using plastic lines that can be moved easily are also becoming popular. These simple systems can pay for themselves in one year. By reducing water costs and raising yields, they can dramatically raise incomes of smallholders.”

(Left click on pictures to enlarge)

Drip irrigation increases the productivity of water usage to more than 70% over the above-listed current standards which apply in surprisingly many places. More importantly, in terms of landscaping, drip irrigation and adaptations of garden and landscape design, alternatives are being sought to limit the more water-hoggish elements of our landscaping past.

One very major beneficiary of attention is obviously the famous “English Model” – great wide expanses of gorgeous and green grass. In the more recent relocation of millions of Americans, for example, to thriving Western cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Reno, criticisms of desert towns having monstrous amounts of grass are completely accurate in their condemnation. Inasmuch as these water worries are local, it is even more the case.

Personally, I have prided myself on adhering to some of these tenets, then even enlarging on them. Yes, I have installed large pieces of grass for clients in Reno and in California towns where water is becoming short-handed. I have had my own issues with finding alternatives to grass, personally, especially since I so admire all a great lawn can accomplish in terms of literally changing the micro-climate of weather inside a home’s individual envelope. Grass lawns cool things down; they evaporate, of course, and push moisture into the air in non humid climates; they look fabulous and are fun to walk on, sit on, lay on and play on. And, having said all that, I know lots of dudes who are utterly macho about having “the most killer lawn in the neighborhood”, lol. I do know these men and they are numerous!

This is great for Kentucky, where taking one’s chances on rainfall irrigating such water-intensive stuff can generally be relied on. But, even they are facing some drought conditions which have led to some scary fears. Atlanta, Georgia faces the results of their most recent drought with real existential trepidation. They failed to allow for this possibility in their water-planning and now face huge issues. My point is this – we all have some responsibility in a wiser use of the resource of water.

Let’s Review – This is a Kentucky Highway in an average Summer:

And this is a Nevada Highway:

Big difference.  😉   Note the lack of grass in the lower photo.

It would be useless asking Americans or Australians to not want gardens outside their homes. Them would be fighting words, anyway. The notion of beauty and of simple enjoyment is an issue which few would give over to any government body. For another thing, food gardening saves us money and grants us a known fruit or veggie with that famous maximum taste and which grows from fertilizers and nutrients and soils of which we are totally aware. When we bite into a Red Delicious Apple or into some gorgeously rich-tasting Yellow Grape Tomato – or when our asparagus finally makes it onto our tables after a few years of cultivation – we have a product of our own labors and a foodstuff we actually earned and which – by almost any criterion – tastes better than those mass-produced suckers we get from the store, sold by appearance in a small selection of variety.

So where do we all go?  Nevada?

Next, I will show how landscaping is adapting to the newer realities and will provide an explanation of how simple and easy converting to drip irrigation can be. The uses of drip irrigation can surprise us, as well, including automated watering of such things as hanging baskets, containers and raised beds. We will also deal with design issues, such as reducing the lawn square footage and producing beds which can handle shrubs and trees which use a tenth of the water of a lawn.

This is the first of 3 water-centered installments I presented nearly 5 years ago. The current level of attention concerning water has pretty much reached crisis status. And, if it hasn’t, then it simply will. Not just global warming but the provision of water for the planet’s 7.5 billion souls is stretching our ability to cope.

For long years, beginning in the 80’s, solutions were sought for the trade of landscaping alone. Many excellent ideas were produced, as the following posts will address. Naturally, places like California and Arizona who now have sophisticated and long-established (and gorgeous) landscaping achievements, fought this problem earlier than others. As a result many great water-conserving ideas where discovered there including, and probably most importantly improvements in drip irrigation delivery systems.

The very first drip irrigation was – not surprisingly – developed in Israel for purposes of using meager water resources for the fruits and vegetable needs for as growing but arid country. Indeed, their progress and innovations dealing with “desalinization” lead the world at this time – something California is just beginning to invest in – a bit late in the game.

But this gets discussed below. Enjoy.

Irrigation is the process by which we relax and let Man take over the work of God. I realize this sounds dreadfully hyperbolic, but, honestly, it is what it is. If we waited for rain and natural elements to supply our watering needs, we’d soon face the fact that not much would make it. Gardening and landscaping are not like farming in Illinois and Iowa, where somewhat (!!) predictable rainfalls can be relied on to supply us with our liquid energy.

The current concerns of Global Warming and somewhat Apocalyptic thinking also takes issue with general water availability, concerned that we use water in gardens which would be better used elsewhere. I think this fear is undoubtedly a truism. But I do not think it’s remotely applicable, either, perhaps even in particular related to gardening. The Sahara could use more water. The Gobi gets pretty doggone dry. You can downright drown by going outside on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State in the Winter.

Reasonable and very smart people have put themselves at this problem and have concluded numerous things. Some places should worry about water more than others. Some places get abundant water. We are not yet geared for transferring water from British Columbia (which gets too much) to California and Nevada (which, Lord knows, could use more). Nor are places like Atlanta, Georgia properly planned for the drought conditions they recently underwent, finding they had far too few resources in place for collection and storage of water. We so often, as a species, wait until the Worst shows up before dealing proactively with the problems facing our frantic expansion.

Having said that, I marvel at Reno, Nevada’s foresight now and then, with their excellent storage system of reservoirs, catching the always-needed snowmelt. Sure, when the snow is meager, they suffer a bit. But when it is average or better, they pack it in, big time. They also have implemented largely successful water-stretching plans consisting of policing the worst abuses of overwatering and waste and of educating the public about the ways to lessen the need for wasteful water practices, from low-use toilets to shorter showers to smarter plantings in the garden and wiser irrigation practices.

There are other positive developments in water usage – on site storage of rainwater and snow melt by use of catch basins and traps. Grey Water is a most promising area. And then there is common sense –

Water consciousness is a blooming (pardon the pun) field. The term “water auditing” is making its way into our lexicons and is the height of wisdom, especially for those who actually pay for water. It’s like accounting for grocery expenditures – it is a real and present cost, complete with ways of cost-saving – sometimes huge ones.

Irrigation practices have now officially made their way into the limelight as a method of actually saving money. It may seem odd to couple “saving water” with “irrigation” and it does presume that one already waters his yard and garden – there is that. If you have no garden whatsoever, why are you reading this?

But almost anyone reading here has a garden or lawn. We ask ourselves, how we can help and still garden?

Wise irrigation is a booming area. Irrigation companies are awarding big bucks for innovations and for ideas which help limit the wise use of water, including changing plants to more native varieties, changing the delivery systems of the water we use to more efficient ones and changing our senses of design and sustainability in ways which are new, different and actually very exciting. Did you realize, for example, that by changing – say – one half of your lawn to flowers and shrubbery, you can reduce your water costs by 70%? Did you realize there are now systems in place which accurately deliver the precise amount of water needed to plants, with little or zero waste? Did you know that a scrupulous monitoring of water usage based on an audited need can cut water use by up to 90%?

Watering our lawns and gardens were once just taken for granted as much as breathing the air around us. The dang stuff was everywhere!  😉  But times have changed – like everything else. Now we find ourselves searching diligently for methods of changing our ways so that we can not over extend what we once took for granted into some impossible-to-access corner.

I’m going to present a hopefully accessible look at irrigation from a user and installer’s perspective. As a contractor who has specialized in irrigating lawns and plants, I think I hold an interesting perspective from which we can all gain something. Watching the various reactions to the looming water shortages around the globe and here at home, I think I can present ways of maximizing the use of this precious resource while still allowing us to enjoy what means so much to us all – a good garden.