[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Dick Gross]

Griselle, I respectfully submit that your inquiry asks far too much for most 
of us to respond to without a lot of time writing, without any degree of 
accuracy, a small book to cover all aspects of your question.  Answers would 
have to consider such things as soil type and depth, how well the soil 
drains, how do you irrigate now--by hand or by hose, If drippers or 
emmitters-- their capacity, spacing, frequency, where located, how are the 
irrigation basins laid out; and other factors. Water usage varies widely 
between species, especially trees and lawn but all benefit from deep 
watering that itself would require a couple of paragraphs to explain 
clearly.

If your present system seems inadequate, I suggest--while you ponder a hands 
free system, trying the following method for the time being and watch your 
yard turn into a virtual jungle before your very eyes. Your weeds will 
thrive as well but pull very easily.

Get a good oscillating sprinkler from a hardware or nursery. Hook it up to a 
hose and outlet. Set the sprinkler in a central part of the area and adjust 
the flow to cover the largest portion of the yard it will reach. An 
oscillating sprinkler is one that swooshes back and forth slowly applying 
water like a gentle rain. Get a cheap set of barbeque tools and use the hot 
dog/marshmello spit to test depth. Starting and stopping as necessary to 
avoid runoff, when you can sink the rod straight down to the hilt in several 
parts of the yard, shut the water off. The time can be from a few hours to 
all day. I have run the sprinkler all night. Don't irrigate again until the 
soil is quite dry 2 or 3 inches deep in the soil. If you pay attention, you 
can usually tell from the foliage lack of luster and degree of limp when 
water is needed again. With this system, every plant gets the same amount of 
water, more than some need. But with an overhead deep soak, less frequent 
irrigation is needed and I believe, but can't prove, the amount evens 
out--may even, I suspect, be less..

About every three months, I used to sow about 10 pounds of soil sulfur and 
20 pounds of ammonium sulfate evenly over the entire yard before starting 
the sprinkler. Concentrate ammonium sulfate a little heavier in the drip 
line areas. I would advise using some caution with the amounts until you can 
weigh the effect.

This is what has worked for me but, depending on your yard configuration, 
soil type and kind of vegetation, you may need to do some "seat of the 
pants" engineering to make the method work effectively to your own 
advantage. Lawn maintenance may require individual consideration. All lawn 
in my yard has been replaced with 4 inches of crushed rock without a plastic 
underlay.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa County Cooperative Extension.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gsignorelli71 at msn.com>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 9:01 PM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Griselle Signorelli
> 85239
> gsignorelli71 at msn.com
>
> How long and often should I water my lawn and trees/shrubs during each 
> season?
>
>
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