5 ways to create a water efficient yard

Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes

According to the National Geographic Survey, most of Utah is considered a desert, as it receives no more than 10 inches of precipitation a year. Of course, with increased elevations and amazing mountain ranges, some areas get far more than 10 inches of precipitation and are classified as temperate.

In Utah, the winter snowpack helps create a water supply that Utahns depend on for drinking water, industry, agriculture and landscape watering. This variable annual precipitation creates a situation where some years there is enough water, some years we have less than enough, and some years there is flooding.

Regardless of the natural precipitation, Weber Basin Water would like to help all community water users learn to be efficient—all the time. Maximizing efficiency and using only what is actually needed will help maintain adequate water supplies—even with a growing population.

There are many ways to improve efficiency in Utans' landscape water use, here are five.

The first way to make your yard more water-efficient is to try to improve your sprinkler system issues for optimal performance. This includes ensuring your sprinkler system parts like the filter, sprinkler heads, drip emitters, etc. are in proper working order.

This means that heads should be at the right depth (not sunk below grade nor up too high), making sure heads are straight up and down (not tilted), making sure they are aligned properly for their spray pattern design and finally making certain heads are spaced properly from each other. Proper spacing should create an overlap, which is called "head-to-head coverage." These simple fixes deliver water evenly and should eliminate brown spots in the yard and save water if sprinkler parts are installed and maintained correctly.

The second way to make your yard more water-efficient is to learn how to properly schedule the watering run times and frequencies. Scheduling should be based on actual plant needs, not simply a fixed number of days per week all summer long.

Sometimes there is a program already set in your controller or timer from the installer or previous owner. Do your research and learn what your plants and grass need, and then make adjustments to save water and produce healthy plants.

All water users should learn how long it takes to fill the root zone of the lawn on their property (soils vary everywhere) by setting up some catch cups or straight-sided cans. Each irrigation should apply about a half inch of water which will fill the root zone in most cases. You will run your sprinklers to collect this volume in your cups or cans and time how long it takes. This time should be your run time for that zone.

Each time you water, you will apply that half inch to fill the root zone.

The next challenge is to determine how often to run the cycle. This requires you to pay attention to the seasons and see how fast the root zone dries out.

There should be seasonal adjustments because of weather changes and water needs in those different seasons. Spring and fall are cooler times and need less frequent irrigation—saving thousands of gallons of water.

Even summer irrigation can be cut back from what most people think is needed. In northern Utah, for most average soils, watering lawns is only needed three times per week at the most.

You can make your yard decisions simpler by using a smart irrigation controller—and you can even get rebates from the state for these.

Additionally, you can reference the statewide watering guide to learn how many times per week you need to water based on weather needs and region.

The third way to make your yard more water-efficient is with proper maintenance practices for your lawn. Set your mower to a higher setting. Grass that is left longer is healthier and typically has deeper root structures. It can also shade the soil to reduce evaporation.

Make sure your lawn mower is sharp. A sharper blade makes clean cuts, reducing plant stress as it rebuilds from cuts rather than rips or tears. It's also a good idea to aerate your lawn if you have compacted or heavy soils. This will help water and air movement which will contribute to deeper roots.

Proper fertilization will also help keep a lawn healthy and more able to be drought tolerant and recover more quickly when drought stress does occur.

The fourth way to make your yard more water-efficient is to always water flower beds with drip irrigation. Spray irrigation in bed areas can be blocked due to foliage of ornamental plants. It can also water all of the soil in an area even if nothing is growing in that area.

It creates more potential for weed growth and is not as efficient as drip irrigation for delivering the water you need for your ornamental plants.

If you are watering flower beds of mixed plantings with lawn areas on the same zone, separate these zones to save water and have healthier plants. Lawn and ornamentals need different volumes of water at different frequencies. If they run on the same zone, something is likely being overwatered.

The fifth way to make your yard more water-efficient is to make physical changes to your yard. This generally means switching lawn areas to more drought-tolerant plantings. This could also involve incorporating other uses in the yard such as a patio, or firepit. With more functional areas like those, you eliminate lawn and water use in those areas entirely.

These structural changes can improve the function of your space, making it more inviting and useful for you, while reducing your water needs by thousands of gallons per week.

For more information on changing your yard, visit weberbasin.com and check out the free classes that are offered throughout the summer. Another great resource for low-water landscape principles is localscapes.com.

Any or all of these five ways can create more water-efficient yards. Weber Basin ]invites all water users to take a little more personal responsibility for their water use. Only use what is needed and maximize efficiency wherever you can.

As water users, it's easy to react to the weather of the current year, but if you plan and incorporate efficient practices and changes, water can be saved every year, leaving a more robust and sustainable water supply.

This year, due to an amazing water year, the water supply will be great. However, it's a strong possibility that drought conditions will return in future years. If Utahns plan now, they will all fare much better in the next extended drought.