Save 1,000 to 1,800 gallons a month depending on your climate. Lawns are the thirstiest part of your garden - and usually the highest maintenance. Beautiful native plants like ceanothus, salvia, manzanita and Baccharis will reduce the water use by 50 to 75 percent and your maintenance time and expense by a similar amount.
Your garden needs less water in April than in July; less in January than April. Reduce the days of your watering schedule for the Spring season. Then as the weather changes, increase the number of days of your watering schedule to accommodate the longer, hot days of summer. An even better approach is to exchange your irrigation [...]
Most California native plants require significantly less water than its foreign neighbors. Choose an area of the garden with its own irrigation station that does not have any thirsty exotic plants nearby. Then, plant a few easy, year-round, good-looking native plants, like Cleveland sage, California lilac, Manzanita and Coral Bells. You'll love them, and will [...]
Good water pressure is fine in the shower, but not for the sprinklers. Too much water pressure, especially when using traditional spray-head sprinklers, creates misting, drift, overspray and evaporation - all waste water. A simple pressure regulator can reduce your pressure from a wasteful 60+ psi to a more appropriate pressure of 40 psi.
With garden spaces getting smaller and more complex, traditional underground popup irrigation often won't work. The water is delivered too quickly and the spray areas are too large. For delicate landscape areas, micro-irrigation is a good choice. Micro-irrigation is designed to only spray small areas with very low pressure and volume. Best of all, there [...]
Check for overspray and adjust your sprinklers on a regular basis. Overspray onto sidewalks and hard surfaces wastes water. First, try adjusting the direction of the spray by simply turning the head, then adjust the throw (distance) by tightening or loosening the tiny screw on the top of the head. If you're still getting overspray [...]
There are dozens of soaker systems, but without question the best and most reliable one is Netafim. They practically invented the concept about 50 years ago, and control about one-third of the global market. The tech stuff is confusing (pressure compensating, self-flushing, anti-siphon, UV resistant, LEED approved, etc.). It saves water - that’s what matters.
It would seem obvious, but many gardeners don’t realize that they may have a faucet or two in their garden that leak. This constant dripping can add up to a lot more water than you might think - up to 20 gallons a day or 600 gallons a month for each leak. Often, all that [...]
A 1,000 sq. ft. lawn (about normal) that is watered once a day with traditional sprinklers for 10 minutes will use about 8,400 gallons per month. If the lawn is watered twice per week for 20 minutes, the water use will be about 4,800 gallons per month. That’s a 43% water reduction. Even more water [...]
A 1,000 sq. ft. lawn (about normal) that is watered for 10 minutes a day with traditional sprinklers will use about 8,400 gallons per month. If the lawn is replaced with a traditional ground-cover and is watered about 4 hours per week, the water use is about 2,100 gallons per month. If the lawn is [...]
