Extra-Credit Water Savers

Going the Extra Mile to Make Every Drop Count

Three simple landscaping decisions produce profound and powerful water savings: replacing a traditional lawn with an IdealMow® lawn alternative, integrating smart irrigation, and planting natives.  The first two alone can save more than 70 percent of the water you use outdoors – (household – what is 70% of 60%?).

For those of you who are always looking to go the extra mile, here are choices that earn extra credit, delivering the most powerful water savings possible.

Choose an Optimal IdealMow® Variety

While we select all IdealMow® lawn alternatives for their ability to thrive in dry months without chemical fertilizers and with little water, some are super-savers. Dune Sedge (Carex Pansa), for example, can save 80 percent of the water needed to support a traditional grass like tall Fescue.  This is 10 percent more savings than some of our other IdealMow favorites!

Be Picky with the Natives

California’s terrain consists of an extraordinary diversity of climates from bogs to dessert, and our native foliage reflects what it takes to thrive in this variety of microclimates with unmatched biodiversity.  This is to say that, while simply going native will reap great water savings, ensuring the specific natives you choose are adapted to the specific microclimates of your neighborhood and property will bring even greater savings.  As a bonus for your extra effort, foliage placed in its ideal microclimate will grow strong and perform to its most optimal aesthetic.

Invest in Hydrozones

Weather based controllers, water management, and low volume, subsurface irrigation all conserve amazing amounts of water while keeping your garden in tip-top shape.  For extra credit, create hydrozones – retrofit or change irrigation to match the needs of your new planting schemes. Each side of your home has a unique microclimate.  Embrace these distinctive climate zones, customizing the delivery of water to meet only what is needed by the foliage within each zone. Use as many zones as your project and plant pallet demands. A diverse plant pallet with proper watering will result in a healthy, pest and chemical free garden.