Article featured in the Inland Empire Apartment Association Magazine

 The Do’s of Water Conservation in your Landscape

Southern California Drought

It’s always been wise to conserve water, but today in California, conservation is more than just a good idea — it’s essential. California’s main water sources have been severely impacted by record dry conditions. We are already using our reserves to supply our everyday water.  Our water situation is serious. California needs to stretch our water supplies to insure that there is enough water to serve everyone who needs it. About three to five years of normal or above normal rainfall would be needed in order to catch up from today’s drought. About seventy percent of people’s water is used outdoors to water their landscapes, which is why the best place to make significant reductions in water use is outdoors.

Wasted Water

Wasted water without a doubt is a huge drain on our natural resources as well as our pocketbooks. Beyond the waste of water, problems of premature plant death, waterlogged and unstable slopes, disease, runoff, (and a host of others) plague over-watered landscapes. “Automatic” sprinklers are a thing of the past. They offer a low initial cost, which is often swallowed up in the first years of operation.

Property Owners

Property owners rarely have the manpower to properly adjust irrigation for constantly changing rainfall, temperature and humidity conditions. Companies just can’t afford all the people and time it would take. Is there really any excuse for watering during rainfall? Will any passing resident fail to notice this egregious waste of money?

Not only do we have the problems of unnecessary wastage during rainy periods, your own maintenance contractor tends to compound the problem by irrigating too frequently for too little time. Because of this, plants develop very shallow root zones. By changing to a proper irrigation schedule your plants will develop deeper roots, as well as become healthier and more disease resistant. Your everyday maintenance contractor tends to skim over the issues concerning excess water usage. By working with a specialist in landscape water conservation, you can realize a thirty to forty percent reduction in your outdoor water bill, as well as healthier plants, less runoff, and stable slope planting.

Emerging Solution

Irrigation manufacturers developed new smart irrigation technology to address the issues above and to improve irrigation efficiencies. This is an emerging technology that is becoming widely accepted and promoted. It deserves some discussion since it has great promise. Irrigation auditing and detailed schedules are complicated and expensive. For the past twenty five years or so, the emphasis has been on educating the landscape worker who interacts with the irrigation system. Because of unproductive results due to improper management of the system, trying to change behavior in regard to water use has not produced the result desired. Many people want to remove behavior from the landscape water conservation equation by implementing Weather Based Smart Controllers. This would be a good idea for every site with a landscape.

However, Smart Controllers will never be a low flush toilet, for the landscape. Too many people push too hard and fast to see the results of the new technology. Having a knowledgeable professional overseeing the Controller (quarterly monitoring) will maximize savings of irrigation water. Smart Controller technology works best with monitoring and adjustments made by humans. Such adjustments as …

1.       Improving irrigation system efficiency (leak repairs, overspray, eliminating run-off).

2.       Proper sprinkler or drip spacing.

3.       Incorporating drought tolerant plants into your landscape, and placing plants with similar needs together in the same zone, called Hydrazones.

Today’s gold standard for irrigation control is the Weather Based Smart Controller. It will frequently pay for itself within the first year of operation. That’s a safe bet, especially here in California. This technology lets you turn down the water way below the text book settings resulting in a possible thirty to forty percent water savings. Some water districts offer rebates for conversion to Weather Based Smart Controllers along with rebates for high efficiency sprinkler nozzles.

These systems use weather information and site conditions to determine how much water to apply and when to irrigate. Some Smart Controllers rely on a free subscription service to download ET values and weather data daily. Based on this information, the Smart Controller is able to calculate exactly how much water your landscape needs, and still keeping it green and healthy. By using a Smart Controller it helps prevent water waste, premature plant death, waterlogged and unstable slopes, plant disease, and runoff. Also, using less water leaves you with a lower water bill and the feeling that you are doing something good for the environment.