Daylight savings time has ended, clocks have been set back and the first rains have fallen. Now is a good time fall back on your watering schedule too! Days are shorter and cooler reducing evaporative pressure on your landscape. With any luck we’ll have some good rains and the irrigation can be shut off altogether. Irrigation scheduling is often an iterative process as water needs can be affected by landscape maturity, exposure, soil type, plant type, slope, and density of planting.  There isn’t a “one size fits all” program.

At home I’m irrigating my established front yard landscape on level sandy soils and a good mulch layer once every 2 weeks, using Netafim CV .6 gph tubing 18″ on center for about 50 minutes. Once the rains start I’ll probably leave it off for the whole winter. If you’re watering more than once a week, depending on your landscape, now might be a good time to dial it back.

Cheers,

Nathan