When Grass Should Die

If you’re like me, you like to have a yard that is beautiful, thriving, and green. That takes water. As a matter of fact, one common denominator between almost all the beautiful landscapes in central Texas is a sprinkler system. That’s because those landscape owners have discovered the best way to have a beautiful landscape is to give it enough water at the right time and a sprinkler system is the easiest way to accomplish that.

But what if the satisfaction you derive from a beautiful landscape goes down the dumper when you get your water bill? I know it’s hard to say you enjoy your beautiful landscape x dollars worth, but perhaps you have come to realize you DIDN’T enjoy it $_____ worth. (Fill in the amount of your last water bill.)  If that’s the case, it’s time to take action.

Maybe it’s time to make a choice in favor of financial frugality.  The professional water guys agree.  Any time you look at the efficient methods of watering landscapes, you’ll run into a concept called “allowable stress”.

Allowable stress assumes that your landscape can be “good enough” without being “perfect.” What a concept!  So, if your beautiful landscape carries with it a water bill that has gotten out of hand, maybe it’s time to change. 

In other words, if YOU are stressed because your plants aren’t, maybe it’s time for a role reversal. Maybe it’s time for some of your grass to die––or, at least go dormant.

If that’s where you’re headed, you might want to keep in mind a couple caveats.

1. Your landscape influences your property’s worth.  Just be aware that your landscape has at least two values. 
• Replacement Cost: Will it cost a lot to replace it if everything dies?
• Aesthetic Value:  A pretty place is usually worth more than an ugly or unkept place and “ugly” and “dead” go together like salt and pepper.
2. Establish a priority.  That 100 year old oak tree is probably worthy of more trouble than that blade of grass.  Water valuable trees and shrubs at the expense of lower value plants.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing--with one possible exception.  If you can lower your water bill but keep everything on life support, that’s good.  But Bermudagrass is an exception.  It is a very drought tolerant plant and responds to all or nothing.  It does not respond well to just keeping it alive.  If you have Bermudagrass and want to wait until this drought has ended, you’re probably better off depriving Bermudagrass completely--within reason. 

Do your own test.  Try cutting your water in half.  If you water every day, cut it to every other day.  If you water three times a week, use the Water Budget feature on your irrigation controller to drop is to 50% of your current settings.  Look at how your landscape is responding to this diet.  If all is well, you might want to cut it in half again.  When you see a degradation, stop or even bring it back up a bit.

Your grass and other plants will not do as well as they did with the full meal, but your checkbook balance will notify you of your wisdom.   A little bit of stress transfer might be just what’s needed. 

Note: A properly maintained sprinkler system can save water, too.  If Rainstat Irrigation can help, please call us at 254-829-3800.

How To Water In This Central Texas Drought

The Waco area has a lot of clay soil.  But, oddly enough, if you don’t have clay, you probably have sand.  Two completely different soil types.

But you water them the same.

Really. 

This is the story of a root.  That’s right, the root of a blade of grass in your yard right now.  Your roots live in the “root zone”––about 4 inches below the surface of the soil.  That 4-inch depth is the target for all water if your precious root is going to get a drink. 

Let’s look at what happens when you water.  If you have Sandy soil, the water soaks in readily. So readily, in fact, that the water passes your root as it is traveling merrily to the center of the earth. The end result is your root misses the water.

On the other hand, if you have clay soil, the water can’t penetrate down to the root zone, so it stays on top in the form of runoff. Again, your root doesn’t get the benefit of the moisture.

There’s a simple solution to both scenarios.

If your normal watering routine was 20 min. three times a week for spray zones and one hour, three times a week for rotor zones, consider dividing that watering schedule into smaller doses and do them more often.

Your spray zones were getting 60 min. of water per week, so try dividing that time into multiple waterings every day. If you watered 4 min. on each spray zone, but you did it twice a day, everyday, you would be using the same amount of water and you would be cooperating with soil type.  The water would have time to penetrate your clay soil down to the desired 4 inches in clay soil, and you would put so much water on that it ran down the curb.  The same goes for sandy soil.  The smaller dose easily travels to the root zone, but that’s all.  There’s not the flood of water that forces it past your roots.

This advice is counter from the wisdom you’ll get on TV, but that’s because we are not blessed with loamy soil with 85 degree maximum temperatures.  Don't worry, though.  I heard we're supposed to get a cold front . . . sometime in October!

If you're struggling with your sprinkler system, maybe we can help.  The call is free.  Call Drew at 829-3800. 

No Need for Sprinkler Repair in Kemp, Texas

There are about 1,100 people in Kemp, Texas and none of them need sprinkler repair today.  Why? Because they have NO water.

When you know that Waco owns the lake, it's pretty easy to be smug--even during this drought.  But you are vulnerable even if you live right next to the lake.

When you turn on your sprinkler system or take a drink from your tap, you're the beneficiary of at least two components that most of us take for granted, pipes and electricity.

Electricity runs the pumps that bring the water to you.  If the electrical grid fails, it won't take long before you are out of water.

And, the more pipe there is between you and the water treatment plant, the more possible a pipe break can interrupt you flow.

That's what happened in Kemp, a suburb of Dallas.  Because of dryness, the ground shifted and broke a city main.  Over 2 million gallons later, both water towers were completely empty. 

The troubling thing about all of this is it's not that hard to design and install a rainwater harvesting system.  That would at least bridge a gap until the water supply could get back on line.

We'd love to talk to you about installing an efficient rainwater harvesting system.

Call Drew now at 254.829.3800 for a free estimate.

Want Yard of the Month? Hire Rainstat!

Not really.  We had very little to do with these nice folks getting yard of the month, but it does point out that beautiful landscapes like this don't happen without water.  The right amount at the right place at the right time. 

If your sprinkler system could use some fine tuning, we'd love to help.

Call Drew at 254.829.3800 to schedule a free system check.