The summer of 2016 is an especially important year for summer water conservation, as we recover from low precipitation levels in the fall, winter, and spring. Outdoor water use can increase up to 50 per cent in the summer months, so the Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society, in partnership with Highlands Irrigation, wants to encourage the Cariboo to limit their lawn and garden water consumption as much as possible. Join us for a free drip and micro-irrigation workshop on April 30 to learn more. We’ll also have some intro drip kits for sale at the workshop, in addition to on-site demos and sample irrigation equipment.
How Does Drip Irrigation Work?
This might be an obvious question, but drip irrigation works over a large area through small emitters along a water line or tape, as opposed to one emitter in the form of a sprinkler. The combination of emitter size and water pressure deliver droplet-sized water at a specific rate to adequately saturate the soil over a longer period of time. The slow and steady supply of water also minimizes the chance of runoff and overspray, which can be detrimental to your garden.
How Much Water Does it Conserve, Compared to Overhead?
Drip irrigation systems can use 30-50 per cent less water than overhead sprinklers. This is because they deliver low volumes of water directly to plants’ roots, while minimizing losses to wind, runoff, evaporation, or overspray. There are overhead options, however, that conserve water better than others, and we’ll go over those at the workshop.
What kinds of plants can we put on a drip system?
In short, just about anything. But because of the higher level of initial time and sometimes cost to set up, as well as the fact that it is spread out in the garden, it’s best to use drip on lower maintenance and/or lower value crops and plants. Drip works very well for most of your vegetable garden, other than high-rotation plants where drip might be a pain to remove and reapply, or crops that require some regular disturbance until mature, like potatoes. In these cases, drip tape would be cumbersome. But almost all vegetables, fruits trees, and shrubs are good candidates for drip. Even direct-seeded and transplanted varieties.
WHEN: Saturday, April 30 – 10am-12pm
WHERE: Memory Garden (Carson Dr and 5th Ave)
CALL: (250) 398-7929 or waterwise@ccconserv.org for more info!
