If you were lucky enough to get more than a light rain tonight, take advantage of it. The best way is to stop your irrigation system from watering for a few days.
If you don’t have a rain sensor on your sprinkler system, turn the dial to “off” for several days. This will prevent your sprinkler system from watering since your landscape has gotten what it needs from Mother Nature.
The water from rain or your sprinklers is stored in the soil. The roots of your plants extract it when they need it. Keep in mind, the soil can only store a few days worth of moisture, so the benefit from the rain won’t last for a long time. But if you can skip one or two waterings, it will help you save money on your water bill and protect your community’s water supply.
Just make sure you mark your calendar two or three days from now to turn your sprinkler clock dial back to “automatic” or “run.” You don’t want to forget and cause your plants to become drought stressed because you left your sprinklers off too long.
How can you tell if you have a rain sensor on your sprinkler system? If you have one, there will be a small device on the wall next to your irrigation timer (or sprinkler clock) that connects to a sensor outside. The device may or may not be connected to the sensor with a wire, since some rain sensors are wired and some are wireless. The sensor is usually located in an open area like on the gutter of your house or on a fence.
If you don’t have a rain sensor, check out my post on adding one to your sprinkler system. It’s a great addition to save water by preventing your sprinklers from running when it rains. This is an easy upgrade which is especially valuable if you go out of town frequently during the summer.
Enjoy the holiday weekend!
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