It’s been a long, hard winter for your yard. While your plants go dormant to cope with the colder weather, your sprinkler system can feel the effects of winter, too. Cracks in pipes can lead to costly leaks, and broken sprinkler heads can waste water and money. You could be losing up to 25,000 gallons of water and more than $90 over a six-month irrigation season—the cost of about 300 daffodil bulbs!
Now is the perfect time to spruce up your irrigation system before you ramp up your watering efforts this spring and summer. To get started, follow these four simple steps—inspect, connect, direct, and select:
Inspect. Check your system for clogged, broken, or missing sprinkler heads. If you’re not the do-it-yourself type, go with a pro—look for an irrigation professional certified through a WaterSense labeled irrigation program.
Connect. Examine points where the sprinkler heads connect to pipes/hoses. If water is pooling in your landscape or you have large wet areas, you could have a leak in your system. A leak as small as the tip of a ballpoint pen (1/32nd of an inch) can waste about 6,300 gallons of water per month!
Direct. Are you watering the driveway, house, or sidewalk instead of your yard? Redirect sprinklers to apply water only to your lawn or prized plants.
Select. An improperly scheduled irrigation controller can waste a lot of water and money. Update your system’s schedule with the seasons, or select a WaterSense labeled controller to take the guesswork out of scheduling.
Don’t forget to add “sprinkler spruce-up” to your spring cleaning list this year. There are a lot more resources on how to maintain a water-smart yard at the EPA’s WaterSense website: www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoor, including a section where you can teach your kids about water conservation: http://www.epa.gov/watersense/kids/
Source: Courtesy of EPA WaterSense
