Promoting Water Efficiencies
Whether your area is in a drought or not, it is important for your customers to make sure water is being used efficiently on the properties they maintain. There are a number of things that they can do—some feel-good and some profitable. It is up to each company to decide their motives, create a business plan, and offer services that fit the needs of their customers and their own expertise.
Here are some strategies that your customers can use to put efficiencies to work:
- Suggest and group plants according to their water needs. Don’t plant water-needy plants alongside drought-tolerant plants.
- Suggest low-water-need plants wherever possible. Use natives and other plants that have the same needs as natives as often as possible.
- If an automatic watering system is installed, make sure there are provisions to water only when needed. Install sensors to ensure the system is not going to be running during or just after adequate rain. Some areas now require systems that take moisture needs and supplies into account.
- If installing irrigation systems, make sure to use only efficient ones.
- Determine the type of soil in the various landscape areas. Make sure that the watering schedule is suited to the soil type and the plants’ needs. A sandier soil is going to require more frequent watering than a heavy clay soil. A heavy clay soil is going to need lower volume at a time to avoid runoff.
- Offer an irrigation audit to help determine the customer’s needs and to assure that the plants they have, or are considering, offer the most efficient water use possible.
- Team up with a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor (CLIA) to perform audits. This allows the job to be done in a professional manner by an individual that has passed the necessary exam to become certified and makes sure the exam is conducted in an ethical way.