Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

How To Conserve Water When Watering A Lawn

If you are looking forward to having a perfect lawn, then you need to keep in mind the fact that you have to water your lawn regularly. This is to ensure that your lawn does not suffer whenever they is a dry season or when the rains have delayed for a few days. Despite the fact that it is expected that you will use plenty of water during a lawn, wastage of water should not be accepted. You can do very well if you conserve the water that is around you when you are doing the watering and get even better results compared to that person who is wasting a lot of water. For this reason, this article seeks to explain to you various ways in which you can conserve water when doing this very important exercise.

Know The Right Time To Water

The first thing that you need to do when you are watering the lawn is to understand the time of day that is best for watering the lawn. The best time to do this job is late during the evening. The reason or this is that you will give your lawn enough time to absorb the water, especially at night. Once the sun rises up in the morning, it will find that the water has already been absorbed to the ground and that part of it has already been taken in by the lawn. The effect of this is that evaporation will end up being much slow. On the other hand, if you do your watering during the day when the sun is up, you are likely to find out that plenty of what you have given to your lawn will be absorbed up by the sun and you will therefore be required to re-water your lawn again. This can prove to be a not only wasteful exercise, but also a pretty expensive one.

Mulch Your Lawn

Although this is not the side of mulching that is usually talked about, it is one of the most important roles of the same. When you are watering your lawn, you will conserve plenty of water if you do the simple thing of mulching your lawn. This is because the mulch will cover the ground surface and hence reduce the rate at which the moisture from the ground will evaporate to the air even times of hot sunlight.

Some people do feel that so long as they can afford to pay the water bill, there is really not need to worry about the amount of water that they do spend during the watering process. This is a very dangerous notion because water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource and it is advisable that people strive to conserve water when they have a chance to use it.


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Friday, September 24, 2010

Don't Wait Til You Need An SOS Call - Here's How To Water Your Orchids The Right Way

How much water should you give your orchid? This is one of the most frequent questions I get emailed about. Don't wait until your orchid needs an S.O.S. call; read on now and your orchid will gratefully thank you for it by producing a spectacularly healthy plant and blooms.

The most common mistake people make when watering their orchid is to water it too much. Orchids are planted in a potting bark or growing medium rather than ordinary soil or potting mix. This potting bark retains a lot of moisture. In fact, when you plant or re-pot your orchid, you should soak the potting bark in water for about 30 minutes before adding it to the pot. This will make sure that it is nicely moist and hydrated. If you grow your orchid indoors, you should let the potting bark dry out completely before watering it again.

A good general guide is to water your plant once a week or every second week sparingly. Did you know that, in the wild, some types of orchids grow naturally on the trunks and branches of trees and its normal for their roots to dry out before being watered again by the rain?

If you want the most healthy and spectacular plants, you need to understand how to replicate the environment that they grew in naturally. Once you understand all about your own particular species and its natural habitat, you will then be able to replicate that environment in your own home or garden. Ask the staff at the garden store where you bought your orchid from for information about your particular species' watering needs.

Alternatively, you could jump on the internet and do a search on your species, its natural habitat, rainfall, humidity etc and replicate this in your home or garden.

Humidity is an essential ingredient for an orchid. An easy and cheap way to humidify your orchids is to provide them with a constant supply of water. You can purchase some inexpensive pebbles and a deep saucer. Pour the pebbles into the saucer and place your orchid pot on top of the pebbles within the saucer. Now, water the pebbles making sure that the water never touches the actual orchid pot. By using this method you are able to set up an artificial high-humidity climate around your orchid very easily, quickly and cheaply.

It is a good idea to create a watering routine for your orchid. This is very easy to do; you can use a regular calendar or you can create your own "Watering/Fertilizing" calendar using one of the calendar templates in Word. The advantage of creating your own is that you can customize it to suit yourself and even add images of your own particular species.

Your orchid will love you taking the time to find out about its particular watering needs and will richly reward your efforts by presenting you with a beautiful, healthy plant. Enjoy!


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