Four Tips For Painting Your Lawn Green

If you still want a green lawn but don’t want to pay the high cost for water ,  or have water restrictions that don’t allow for you to keep it green or maybe you just want to do your part for water conservation, painting your lawn green is an option.  Aesthetically I believe having your lawn all one color is important.  I don’t think it matters much if that… Read more »


4 Ways To Kill Your Lawn

Everyday I read about the benefits of killing your lawn and converting turf to a more drought tolerant landscape.  However, even my friends  who claim to have no green thumb at all still have a hard time killing turf.  So if you are ready to channel your inner Norman Bates and kill your lawn,  this post provides four ways to help you.  Just remember it might resist more than you expect,… Read more »


How To Make Smart Irrigation Month Work For You

For those of us who subscribe to the blog, every month is Smart Irrigation Month.  The good news for us is the Irrigation Association created Smart Irrigation Month as an initiative to increase public awareness of the value of water-use efficiency and grow demand for water-saving products, practices and services.   July is the selected month because it is typically the month water requirements are highest for… Read more »


An Awesome Water Management Checklist…Even If You Hate Irrigation

Let’s start with the assumption you are an awesome water manager or at least have responsibility for water management on a property.  Why would you need a checklist for water management? Creating checklists for routine and complex procedures helps you manage a specific set of parameters on a regular basis.  As more tools become available to measure water use, consistency in management is a critical success factor. So, if you can consistently review these four… Read more »


My Favorite Drought-Tolerant Plants for Southwest Landscapes

Contrary to what many people might think, the deserts of the American Southwest offer a kaleidoscope of colorful and interesting drought-tolerant plants with which to create a xeriscape. What is xeriscaping you ask? It’s a way of landscaping that focuses on water conservation through the use of native, drought-tolerant plants. The term comes from the Greek word “xeros,” which means dry, and the xeriscape philosophy is a perfect approach to water-efficient desert gardening. With… Read more »


3 Reasons To Use Drought Tolerant or Native Plants

A native plant is one occurring naturally, in a given geography, without human involvement.  These are the plants growing on the landscape without the aid of humans.  This means they were not brought there intentionally or sometimes unintentionally.  Unfortunately we know sometimes people bring them by mistake and don’t think about the unintended consequences.  A drought tolerant plant does not have to been a native plant.  Drought tolerant plants are plants… Read more »


Resources for the California Drought

The ridiculously resistant high

Many scientists believe the California drought is being caused by a huge high pressure zone off the coast of California.  The zone of high pressure is 4 miles high and 2000 miles long.  The jet stream that would normally drop down into California this time of year has bumped off this high pressure ridge and been diverted to Alaska, British Columbia and the East Coast.  This high pressure ridge has… Read more »


The Power of Smart Controllers

The power of smart controllers comes from using the “smart” features as a tool to manage water. I remember the first time I looked at an Excel spreadsheet I asked a colleague what is all the fuss about? It just looks like a sheet of graph paper to me.  I couldn’t believe there wasn’t some type of template already embedded so I could easily manipulate data.  As I learned more about Excel I started to… Read more »


Four Signs You Are Underwatering Your Plants

A few weeks ago I wrote an article concerning signs you are overwatering your plants.  It created interest in overwatering, but also sparked interests in the subject of underwatering plants.   Since some of the signs of overwatering and underwatering plants look very similar, I am sharing some signs of underwatering.

1.  Your plant is wilting

Wilting is a sign of both underwatering and overwatering your plants…. Read more »


9 Questions To Ask Before Drilling A Water Well

Whether you are thinking about drilling a water well on your property or considering buying land and would like to know the potential for success for drilling on that property, there are many questions you need to answer. There are no simple solutions, no detailed maps of ground-water presence, and no guarantees. Drilling can be very expensive and the potential for success varies.  Also, regulations and permitting is different from state to… Read more »