Five Steps Toward a Water-Smart Landscape
By Tom Karwin
Our water supplies will be more limited and more expensive in the future. Up to half of your water use could be outside your home, and much of that use could be reduced, so this is a good time to think about reducing your water bill and protecting the environment.
No single action would be best for all households, but here are five steps and related resources toward water-smart landscaping.
1. Reduce Your Water Needs
The first and best action is to use drought-tolerant plants: California natives, other Mediterranean climate plants and succulent plants. Also, reduce the size of your lawn, preferably to zero. Replace turf with a low-growing grass or other ground cover, or perennial plants.
Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region. Nora Harlow, Editor. East Bay Municipal Utility District (2004).
2. Irrigate Efficiently
Group plants according to their water needs, and install a drip irrigation system to control how much water you provide and where you provide it. Study the design of drip systems yourself or use a qualified contractor.
Visit www.irrigationtutorials.com/dripguide.htm for Drip Irrigation Design Guidelines.
3. Develop Alternate Sources of Water
During our rainy months, you can harvest a lot of rainwater and store in tanks for garden use during dry periods.
Visit the online rainwater harvesting community at www.harvesth2o.com/ for more information.
Also, recycle your gray-water for garden use. The water from your washing machine is easy to recycle, and should be your first target. To use gray-water on your plants, avoid bleach and soaps that contain sodium salts or boron.
Visit www.watersavingtips.org for a link to The Graywater Guide.
4. Retain Water in the Landscape
Let water soak into the ground, and minimize evaporation. Retaining walls and terraces reduce the speed of water movement, giving time for it to soak in. Also, mixing wood chips or other organic material into the soil helps water to penetrate, and permeable surfaces allow water to flow to the soil. Mulches help to reduce evaporation and also make gardens more attractive.
The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (www.rcdsantacruz.org) offers Slow it, Spread it, Sink it! A Homeowner’s Guide to Greening Stormwater Runoff.
5. Keep Our Watershed Clean
While retaining water in the landscape, it is also important to manage the quality of the water that leaves the landscape, carrying harmful chemicals and other contaminants into the watershed and eventually into the ocean. Plants that are appropriate to the local climate and soil type can be great additions to the landscape without requiring chemical supplements.
When you need to fertilize plants, control weeds or reduce insect populations, avoid synthetic chemicals. Many environmentally friendly options work just as well and reduce costs too.
The University of California’s has information on Integrated Pest Management, including the publication, Pests of the Garden and Small Farm. Search for it at anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/.
Finally, when using potentially harmful chemicals anywhere on your property, minimize runoff and erosion to keep them out of the watershed and the ocean. The practices that retain water in the landscape also will keep harmful chemicals from leaving the landscape and entering the larger environment.
Visit the Surfrider Foundation’s online guide to ocean-friendly gardening: www.surfrider.org/ofg.asp.
When you enlist the services of a landscape contractor, choose a Green Gardener (www.green-gardener.org/). They are trained and certified in ecological landscaping.
The website of the Water Conservation Coalition of Santa Cruz County (watersavingtips.org/) has more information on saving water in the landscape.
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