Last Thursday, with a heat index of 105, I witnessed a sprinkler system spewing water high into the air at noontime near Washington, D.C. This morning, after more than an inch of rain yesterday, I heard my neighbors' sprinkler system go off at 5:45 a.m. in Rhode Island. And after an optimistic drought forecast offered up by the National Weather Service earlier this spring, the map, above, is beginning to lo ...

Gardening success in the summer typically comes down to water management more than any other factor. Two days ago we posted some application tips from RainBird and those are all essential. Even more important, though, is the medium upon which the water lands and is absorbed — or not. The soil, in other words, is absolutely critical. I tell people to think of soil as a sponge. The idea is to build up the thi ...

Water conservation takes many forms. There's the water you apply around your lawn and landscape. Then there's the water supply at large, the groundwater, lakes, rivers, oceans etc. that can be impacted by the lawn and garden products that we use. To better understand how many common products can harm water, check out this article from The Environmental Magazine: By Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine Ea ...

From my personal perspective up here in Maine, it's odd to be talking about how to conserve water. We just came through one of the wettest Junes on record and definitely the most depressing in recent memory. Yesterday and today mark the first consecutive days of decent weather since May. In much of the country, though, the opposite problem exists. It's drier than usual and lawns are frying in the process. T ...