The Summer-Fall Transition

By Kevin Tucker, CIC

With  Fall approaching and the recent rains, those of you with established landscape plantings and turf will be happy to know that it is safe to back down your irrigation system to only run three days a week right now. Fall is a new planting season for many and the new plantings or turf will require more water than this to help them get established.

Hopefully, this break from the blistering heatwaves we have been experiencing will last through Fall. The cooler temperatures during the day, and especially at night, mean that the evapotranspiration rate (a big word for water loss due to plant use and evaporation) is lower so the watering requirements of your grass and plantings will be lower.

If you have been using the seasonal adjust option on your controller you can also turn it back to 100% and even lower in the coming weeks.  Try to use only the amount of water it takes to keep your landscape thriving.

If you need any assistance with this, or if you have any questions about irrigation or fall plantings, feel free to shoot me an email or just give me a call. We will also begin scheduling winterizations starting the second week of September. If you have a specific date you would like this done, please let me know in advance and we will try to make this happen.

Kevin M. Tucker is a Certified Irrigation Contractor with the Irrigation Association located in Maryland and he has been servicing and installing irrigation systems in the Mid-Atlantic region for 15 years. His company, Aquabright, is one of Botanical Decorators’ partners in the metro Washington DC region. Kevin can be reached at 410-489-9009, or click here to e-mail him.