It’s no secret that water is a precious natural resource. Depending on the particular year and geographic location, it’s one that can be quite scarce. For an industry centered around delivering water to turf, planted beds and other landscapes, water scarcity, and even the threat of water scarcity, presents some unique challenges. But there are proven methods for maintaining thriving, vibrant landscapes, and industry professionals are approaching the challenge head-on.
“When there is a drought, everyone panics and there is all this talk about water use efficiency, and as soon as it starts raining, everyone forgets about it,” says Eric Santos, CIT, CLIA, CGIA, CIC, CID, CAIS, CLWM, president of Epic Irrigation Service and Management Inc. in Livermore, California. “What’s unique about southern Nevada and California is we’ve been through periods with extended drought, and there’s always a concern about the next drought coming up. Whether it is in four years or 10 years, we constantly think what do we do to prepare for droughts.”
Future-proofing the landscape
Although designing a highly efficient irrigation system using the most technologically advanced equipment is a great way to deliver water responsibly, the first step in managing water usage and maintaining successful landscapes through dry periods actually starts with the landscape design and plant selection. Designing the landscape with water in mind is the only way to ensure that it will survive, and even thrive, when water is scarce.
“You are future-proofing your landscape by putting in low-water plants.”
– Lori Palmquist, CIC, CID, CLIA, CLWM, irrigation consultant
“You are future-proofing your landscape by putting in low-water plants,” says Lori Palmquist, CIC, CID, CLIA, CLWM, an irrigation consultant, designer and educator in Richmond, California. “Set it up so no matter how much water shows up during any given year, your landscape will thrive. It’s just as much about the plant selection as about the irrigation component selection.”
While some industry professionals might refer to them as drought-tolerant plants, Palmquist says she prefers the term low-water plants, as that denotes plants that need a very low amount of water.
“Some medium-water-use plants are also drought-tolerant, so I don’t use that term,” Palmquist says. “Low-water plants can be natives or Mediterranean climate plants, as California is one of the Mediterranean climates of the world.”
Specifically selecting low-water plants in the landscape design phase ensures that a landscape is not as dependent on supplemental water from the public water supply.
“With low-water plants, we can leverage the rainfall that does show up to keep our low-water plants happy all year round,” Palmquist says.
Santos says he also works with clients to modify the existing landscape water requirement by reducing plant density. Thinning and reducing a shrub bed by 50% translates to a 50% savings in water required to irrigate the plant material.
Turf conversion, or removing turf and replacing it with low-water-use plants, is another proven method for reducing water usage. It’s also a method that can be more difficult to sell to clients who are attached to a certain aesthetic on their property.
Even though turf isn’t typically practical in the dry Mediterranean climate of the west, transplants from the East Coast and people in general are attracted to lush green landscapes, and it’s often difficult to get buy-in to the idea of reducing or replacing turf, says Santos.
“Lawn is definitely appealing, and having these large, rolling stretches of green belt is very appealing to a lot of people,” Santos says. “The challenge is a lot of people love their turf, and when I sit down with clients the last thing they want to hear about is a turf conversion. The first thing they think of is a xeroscape, a desert-looking landscape.”
However, when California Assembly Bill 1572 begins to roll out in 2027, public agencies, restaurants, corporate campuses, industrial parks and certain other property owners will be prohibited from watering nonfunctional turf with potable water, Santos says.
“At a park or playground you have turf used for sports or activities, and that’s functional turf, but a lot of areas have turf that people just walk over to get to their car,” says Eric Anderson, CIC, CID, CIT, CLIA, CGIA, a regional irrigation manager for Monarch Landscape who is based in California. “That’s not functional, it’s not being used for a specific purpose.”
With an understanding that people love grass and green spaces, Anderson says he is trying to get ahead of the impending legislation by beginning conversations with clients.
“We are trying to educate our clients on what is going on in the state of California,” Anderson says. “Historically, we have a lot of sites that are all turf and ivy, and now we are starting to realize how much of a water user turf is. If there is a turf area that no one is using, we are starting to provide ideas of what it could look like. We are educating them with ideas of plant palettes and pictures of flowering shrubs that will enhance the property.”
But Anderson admits that depending on the client, it’s an uphill battle.
“It’s hard to change people’s minds,” Anderson says. “We want everything to be green, green, green all over the place.”
Regardless of the personal tastes of property owners, Santos says he predicts that, as AB 1572 is rolled out in three phases, and the deadline for enforcement in 2031 approaches, the look of the California landscape will change dramatically, putting a dent in the issue of water scarcity.
Water-smart landscaping
While irrigation via a public water supply uses potable water, there are alternative sources of water for irrigation. In the western part of the United States, Santos says that some municipalities are using recycled water, and some properties are using strategies like rainwater capture, storm water capture and cooling condensate capture, which can prove effective, if the conditions are favorable.
“The challenge is there are major infrastructure modifications that need to take place if I’m sitting with a customer with an existing landscape,” Santos says. “Where will we put a storage tank that is large enough to hold the water necessary to irrigate the property? Or, if the water agency doesn’t have a recycled water line running to the site, it could be very cost-prohibitive. Rainwater capture is also a tough sell in California because we don’t get a whole lot of rain.”
Designing the landscape with water in mind is the only way to ensure that it will survive, and even thrive, when water
is scarce.
Designing and constructing a landscape to hold on to water as long as possible is an effective strategy for capturing and utilizing water effectively. According to Palmquist, one of the best ways to accomplish that is through the proper application of mulch. The most recommended type of mulch is freshly trimmed and chipped tree and shrub trimmings, she says.
“A layer of mulch, preferably at least 2-4 inches deep, will reduce the water requirement by 25%,” Palmquist says. “That is a conservative number because I’ve seen research showing it reduces the requirement by as much as 33%.”
Mulch suppresses evaporation from the top of the soil, which Palmquist equates to putting “a lid on our landscapes to hold the water in.”
Palmquist also says that overhead irrigation should not be used above mulched beds, as the mulch itself can absorb at least 25% of the water applied from overhead.
“If you use mulch you should not be using overhead irrigation,” Palmquist says. “You should be applying the water underneath the mulch with drip. Put the drip on top of the soil, then put the mulch on top of the drip line.”
Drip itself is a “big, important player” in effective irrigation, Palmquist says, and converting zones that are irrigated with overhead spray heads to drip irrigation when it makes sense for the plant material will result in water savings.
“As an irrigation designer, I use sprinklers on lawns and meadows and drip on everything else,” Palmquist says. “In California, we have ordinances that specify that plant material taller than 12 inches needs to be dripped, not sprayed, as pop-up sprinklers only go up to 12 inches.”
Improving efficiency
Today’s irrigation technology and equipment, like smart irrigation systems with weather-based controllers that self-adjust throughout the season, are an effective way to deliver the right amount of water to a landscape while reducing the waste of overwatering, Anderson says.
“Having master valves and flow sensors that we are able to retrofit onto a system can cut down on water waste through main line breaks and leaks,” Anderson says. “We can see when breaks are occurring on certain zones in the field, better manage the water on each site and reduce the waste and overwatering on our sites.”
Reducing system inefficiencies and remedying leaks as soon as possible also ensures that water is being used thoughtfully and effectively. Most property owners maintain their landscapes with mowing, the application of weed control and regular pruning, and Anderson says he tries to impress upon clients that checking and maintaining irrigation systems should also be high on the regular maintenance to-do list.
“If you ask a client how often their landscape contractor does wet checks, it’s very common for people to say that their contractor only does a wet check once per year,” Santos says. “Most contractors don’t have the resources to do that on a monthly basis, but there are some customers who are very conscientious about their water use who are diligent with their wet checks.”
Frequent irrigation inspections are a cost-effective and fairly simple way to ensure the system is using water effectively.
“We try to do more consistent irrigation inspections on our sites to find inefficiencies in the system on a more consistent basis,” Anderson says. “We try to educate our clients on why that’s important, why it’s important to make those repairs and not sit on them and let them be broken.”
Incentivizing property owners
In states where water is scare, water agencies have been offering incentives like rebates for years, with the hope of motivating property owners to update equipment and embrace new water-saving technology.
“The list of things we can do to improve the efficiency of an irrigation system is pretty long,” Santos says. “You’re typically going to see a lot of rebates being offered from water agencies.”
When he sits down with a client to have conversations about turf conversions and equipment upgrades, Santos says he tries to figure out what is motivating or would motivate the client to save water. Is it a regulatory mandate forcing them to improve efficiency and conserve water, a financial motivation or simply a motivation to be environmentally conscious?
“We can implement these and reduce consumption by 15% to 20% and often leverage a rebate, but when customers spend money to update their system, they weigh how long will it take to get the money back,” Santos says. “What works for one property will be different for another, but it’s always good to give an overview of ways to reduce consumption.”
