If you have plants, you need water.
Lawns, perennials, annual beds, big decorative pots — they all need a good drink. Again, and again, and again…
But how? Sometimes Mother Nature helps out with a nice batch of rain. Other times, you’re in charge, either by installing an irrigation system or hiring a plant watering service with crews who water by hand.
Hand watering vs irrigation: which is best for your commercial property? Here in the Washington DC area, most established commercial properties don't have built-in irrigation systems. Most months, there’s enough rain for them to get by. But installing an irrigation system is often less expensive in the long run than consistently paying for frequent plant watering services.
Let’s learn more about hand watering vs irrigation, including:
First, Who Needs Plant Watering Services?
How Climate Change Affects Plant Watering Services
Hand Watering Plants: How Does It Work?
Watering By Hand Is Trickier Than You Think
Why Leave Hand Watering Plants To The Pros
Plant Watering Services Should Include Crucial Fertilizer
Hand Watering vs. Irrigation: How Does the Cost Compare?
Irrigation Systems: Budget for Maintenance
Consider Adding Drip Irrigation
Here in the Washington DC area, most established commercial properties don't have built-in irrigation systems. Mature landscaping doesn’t need as much water as new installations, and most months, there’s enough rain for them to get by.
Owners of residential properties often put sprinklers out, moving them around by hand to irrigate grass and beds.
But if you’re planning new landscaping, installing an irrigation system is a smart choice, especially if you have a large expanse of lawn or lots of flower beds.
While older, established properties need less water, new landscaping needs frequent watering until it settles in.
Crews will be digging up your property for the landscaping anyway, so it’s less disruptive to install irrigation now than to add it to existing landscaping.
As our summers get hotter here in the Mid-Atlantic, and we experience more periods of drought, the stress on plants increases. And more plants suffer from drought stress — plants that weren’t as affected in the past.
What does this mean for your property? An increased need for plant watering services, including watering plants that didn’t need it before. Maybe you only have to water annual flowers now, and rain takes care of your perennials and grass. That might not always be the case.
We may even get to a point where your turf needs to be irrigated in the summer if you don't want it going dormant and turning an unsightly brown.
Our climate here in the Mid-Atlantic is becoming more and more like the climate in Southern states like North Carolina, where irrigation is a must for healthy landscapes.
As climate change becomes a bigger issue, affecting our landscapes, installing an irrigation system might make more sense.
Plant watering services are ideal if your landscaping consists mostly of planting beds and decorative pots. That’s typical for many urban properties, from hotels to storefronts to office buildings.
At Level Green Landscaping, we bring the water to you, in tanks on trucks that vary in size, depending on the needs and location of the property.
Smaller, 250-gallon tanks on small trucks are great for the traffic and tight spaces of urban properties.
We also have 1,000-gallon water tanks on flatbed trucks or water wagons pulled by pick-up trucks for larger or suburban properties where accessibility for watering by hand isn’t as much of a challenge.
Our crews visit two or three times a week and hand water with hoses attached to our water tanks. If we do the watering, we guarantee the plant material we supply, because we know it will be watered thoroughly and regularly.
Watering by hand seems simple enough. When plants seem dry, pour some water on them, right?
Lots of plants owe their slow, dry death to this philosophy.
“A lot of people don't understand how to water effectively,” says Paul Wisniewski, vice president of operations at Level Green Landscaping. “It’s not as simple as just splashing some water on the plants and calling it good. You need to water, let the water sink in, and water again. It gets really hot here in the summer months. When it’s 100 degrees and you're perspiring, your plants feel the same way.”
And don't depend too much on rain, he says.
“If we get a little drizzle, people think, ‘Oh, it rained. I don't need to water,’ “ he says. “But a little drizzle is not enough water.”
The latest soil moisture technology tells us instantly if planters of flowers and plants need water — and just as importantly, when they don’t.
Sensors tucked into your planter’s soil tell us instantly — from miles away — the moisture content of your plants’ soil.
We can measure the moisture level at different sites from our office, without sending watering crews out.
That means we can see in real time what the moisture level is on all of our sites, so we’re not sending crews to places that don’t really need watering, but making sure they go to the sites that do.
Level Green account managers and the operations managers who supervise water crews will check the data regularly, before crews go out, to make sure watering is needed.
That’s good for your plants, ensuring they always get the right amount of water, but it’s good for the environment, too, reducing both water usage and landscaping company vehicle use.
It might seem easy to designate a staff person to water your property’s plants. But will that staff person remember? Will they have the patience to water for long enough to really let hydration soak in?
Crews who work for plant watering services know to focus on watering a plant’s roots. That’s what needs water, not the leaves. Wetting the foliage is a waste of water and can promote the spread of disease.
Pros know to water slowly, so the water has a chance to soak into the roots.
Potted plants tend to dry out more quickly than their in-ground counterparts, so they need more thorough and frequent watering.
And if a planting bed includes a tree along with flowers, that tree, with its large roots, will access the water first, Wisniewski says. The flowers get the leftovers — which may not be enough. Those areas need extra water.
When a Level Green team member is hand watering your plants, they're looking at each plant with experienced eyes. An irrigation system is carefully adjusted to reach all parts of your landscaping, and smart irrigation is getting better at honing in on specific needs, but it’s not as exact as skilled human attention.
Our crew members inspect each plant individually and can quickly spot the ones that need extra water.
Plants don’t just need enough water to thrive — they need food, too.
Level Green crews add slow-release fertilizer to all annual beds and pots when they install your plants, but frequent watering leaches the nutrients from the soul.
We recommend liquid fertilizer each month, especially for pots. Ask your account manager about including this in your plant watering service.
You need to look down the road a bit for this one.
Paying for watering by hand will be cheaper at first, but watering using an irrigation system will be cheaper in the long run in most cases.
The initial investment for an irrigation system is significant, so you need to be patient and consider your long- term return on investment.
There are some cases where hand watering plants is actually cheaper, if your irrigation system installation is complicated. Your Level Green account manager can help you figure out which strategy makes more sense for your commercial property.
If you do have an irrigation system, or plan to install one, include the cost of occasional maintenance in your budget.
“Just because you have an irrigation system doesn’t mean it’s working properly,” Wisniewski says. “You need occasional inspections for possible repairs and adjustments. People think, ‘I have an irrigation system, so I'm all set.’ But it’s all underground — you don't know what’s going on down there.”
Irrigation professionals can check.
Sprinkler heads get clogged with dirt and gas clippings. If some holes are clogged, that means too much water may hit some areas and not enough will reach others. That means an unhealthy landscape and wasted water.
Irrigation crews check those, as well as the system’s valves and other mechanical components. A leaky valve will waste water and increase your water bill.
“Be sure to allow some money in your budget for possible summer irrigation system repairs,” he says. “Then you’re prepared in case something happens.”
We generally advise clients to plan to spend about 10% of the installation cost each year on maintenance, and include that in their budget.
So if your irrigation system installation cost $20,000, plan to spend about $2,000 each year on maintenance needs.
You can boost the efficiency of your irrigation system and ensure your plants are well-watered by including drip irrigation for your flower beds.
Drip irrigation uses hoses pierced with tiny holes that allow small amounts of water to trickle slowly into the soil. This method uses less water than typical sprinkler heads because it goes directly to the plant roots. There’s no water waste from evaporation because water isn’t spraying into the air.
It’s healthy for plants, too, as it avoids soaking plant leaves with water, which can encourage diseases.
You don’t need to start from scratch — drip irrigation can be integrated into existing sprinkler systems by converting certain zones to drip irrigation.
Whether you want to upgrade your current irrigation system, install a new one or rest easy with a plant watering service, Level Green can help.
If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. We’ll talk to you about the best watering procedures for your property.
Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.
Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.
We’d love to hear from you.