"Water Wise" Landscaping
A Survival Guide to Saving Money & Water
Getting started – 7 simple ways to save water with your outdoor landscaping
1. Plan ahead with ideas, desires, needs and a budget
2. Grass / lawn reduction or elimination
4. Efficient sprinkler changes
6. Use mulch, rock, decomposed granite or groundcover
We will provide options of what you could do, but it’s always best if you are prepared with some basic ideas, desires, needs and most importantly a budget. Many people want the $20,000 landscape project for a budget of $5,000. Part of Pacific Coast Landscaping’s job is to help you get the most for your available budget.
Pacific Coast Landscaping can help you replace your heavy water consumption by reducing or completely eliminating your turf, or streamlining your irrigation system. Grass requires more water than any other part of your yard, and removing some of your lawn can allow for the beauty of plants that you may not have realized your yard could benefit from.
Over time, soil compacts and forms an impenetrable surface. Pacific Coast Landscaping offers soil services such as aeration, amendments, mulching and composting to greatly benefit your soil’s drainage, moisture penetration and retention, and nutrition.
Knowledge of plant watering requirements and hardware improvements such as head cleanings, pipe repairs and facet adjustments are all relatively basic changes to your sprinkler system that will dramatically conserve water.
More advanced steps can include:
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Changing or regrouping the plants into existing zones.
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Changing existing sprinklers to separate different plant requirements (ie. Lawns separated from planters or shady areas separate from hot sunny areas).
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Upgrading your controller to a Professional grade.
Smart controllers - automatically adjust the watering time and frequency based on soil moisture, rain, wind, evaporation and transpiration rates or plant type.
Climate controls - supplement your new controller and adjust the run-times based upon zip code history and current weather forecasts.
Rain sensors - temporarily shut off your sprinklers when it rains and return the controller to original settings following the weather pattern.
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Replacing spray heads to more efficient, low-precipitation multi stream rotators that use up to 30% less water.
Pacific Coast Landscaping will help you access a large selection of California natives and drought-tolerant plants such as beautiful trees, shrubs and groundcovers that can replace or co-exist with your current plantings. To see a full list of "water wise" plants, click here.
Using 3-5” of organic mulch or other products will conserve water, reduce weed growth, retain moisture, less evaporation, lowers the soil temperature, prevents soil erosion and compaction.
While water-wise landscapes need less maintenance than traditional landscapes, appropriate maintenance is required to insure their ability to withstand drought, frost and pest problems. Remove weeds, raise the height of the lawn mower, fertilize in moderation, prune flowering perennials and woody plants such as trees and shrubs and swift removal of dead, diseased or damaged plants all greatly benefit your new, beautiful yard.
