Keep Your Landscape From Soaking You
Outdoor water usage can consume up to 70 percent of a household’s water. That’s why the easiest way to save water around your home is in your landscape. Mesa’s Water Conservation office offers a variety of guidelines that will save you water while keeping your landscape healthy and beautiful.
Our Water – Use It Wisely mascot, Wayne Drop, will guide you to a variety of resources that will help “drop” your water use:
Watering Guidelines
Give your plants enough water to stay healthy – but not more than they need. Local university research shows many landscapes are watered two to five times more than needed, making this one of the biggest opportunities to save water. Water deeply each time you irrigate, then allow the soil to dry out before watering again. Even in the hottest summer months, your Bermuda lawn should not be watered more than once every three days – and many desert-adapted plants can go much longer (up to 14 days or more). To better understand how much water your plants need, get a free copy of Landscape Watering by the Numbers: A Guide for the Arizona Desert. Call us at 480-644-3306, request a copy through our publications page, or view the guide online.
Monthly Watering Reminder
You can reduce your landscape watering 30 to 50 percent by adjusting your irrigation each season. Follow the landscape watering guidelines from the booklet mentioned above to keep your watering efficient. For monthly updates on changing your watering schedule, sign up for our Landscape Watering Reminder or visit our online version in the News section of our water conservation page.
Control Your Controller/Irrigation Timer
If you don’t have an electrical engineer in the house, or a twelve year old, programming your timer can be very confusing. Get an idea of the basics of programming at our Water –Use It Wisely controller/timer page.
Free Booklets and Guides
Watering is just part of the picture. Saving water in the landscape may involve your landscape style (grass vs. desert), your plant selection, or other landscape features (swimming pools, etc.). Find all of our free water conservation publications, such as a desert plant selection booklet, landscaping guides, and water saving tips for pools by visiting our publications page.
Landscape Plants for the AZ Desert Online
Our landscape plants book is also available online with beautiful photos of over 200 plants. What a great way to pick out beautiful and hardy replacement plants or new plants for your landscape that will help you save water every day.
No More Mowing
Remove your grass and you won’t have to mow any longer… and you’ll save lots of water. As a bonus, we will give you up to $2,100 to do so! Find out more about what it takes to convert your lawn and what incentives we offer by visiting our Residential Grass-to-Xeriscape Incentives page.
Online Advice
Are you looking for some online help? Stay in air-conditioned comfort while you do some landscape planning. Visit Water – Use It Wisely for great landscape information, like our Drab to Fab landscape video series, how to program your timer, what is Xeriscape, and more.
Free Water
We don’t get a lot of rain but collect what sheds off your roof and you could accumulate over 7,000 gallons a year. Find out more by visiting our rainwater harvesting resource page.