Yesterday, we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne.

The weather and gardens were beautiful, but we really noticed how lush and green the lawns were. It was inviting and refreshing to see all that green – and the number of people picnicking there proved the appeal.

What was interesting was to see various notices around the gardens referring to their water usage. They have reduced their water consumption in the last 10 years by about 50% through a system of testing, training staff and improved horticultural practices.

It is an interesting thought that checking your irrigation systems can make a difference to your water consumption. of course, the Botanical Gardens have major irrigation systems to check – they manually check the pressure level of all sprinklers for instance.

However, at home you can check the following things:

• do fittings fit your tap so that there are no drips and leaks when you use a hose or system?
• is your hose in good condition without leaks?
• if you have a watering system, is every sprinkler head clean and clear to allow water flow?
• does your tap timer turn the tap completely off when it finishes?
• does your tap drip?
• do all sprinkler heads point towards plants as appropriate – as plants grow and gardens change, the heads may need to be adjusted

When you consider that a leaking tap can waste up to 20,000 litres of water a year, these regular checks can save a significant amount of water.