Drought: Home & Garden

Lawns don't waste water, people do

The lawn has become a focus in reducing landscape water use because of the tremendous opportunity for abusive use of irrigation water in the name of maintaining it.

Within the traditional landscape, the lawn has received the major portion of total landscape irrigation. But it is possible to reduce lawn irrigation and continue to derive the many benefits of turfgrass.

Specific strategies to reduce lawn irrigation include:

1. Place lawn areas into landscape irrigation zones based on water requirements, so that lawns can be watered separately from other landscape plantings.
2. Select adapted, lower-water demand turf species and varieties.
3. Use irrigated lawn areas only in functional areas (i.e., recreational, aesthetic, foot traffic, dust and noise abatement, glare reduction, temperature mitigation).
4. Use non-irrigated lawn areas where appropriate.
5. Increase mowing heights to decrease lawn water use and stress.
6. Decrease fertilizer rates and properly schedule fertilizations.

By implementing these strategies, homeowners can reduce lawn irrigation requirements and still reap the many benefits of a cool, green lawn.

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