Outside Home Conservation
Conservative estimates suggest that, on average, over half of all water you use at your house is used for landscaping. By using easily available resources, you can save gallons of water per day.
OUTDOOR BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
- Landscape with California Friendly Plants
- Keep turf grass to a minimum
- Keep your sprinklers in good working condition
- Buy an weather-based sprinkler controller, which automatically adjusts your sprinkler times based on your yard's own microclimate.
REDUCE OUTDOOR WATERING BY:
- Use a Watering Calculator to figure out how much water your landscape needs
- If you don't have an automatic sprinkler system, use the Watering Calculator figures to time your watering stations
- If you have an automatic sprinkler system, use the Watering Calculator to program your system
- Once you have programmed your system, use the current Watering Index weekly to adjust the amount of water that is being used
- Water in the morning
- Make sure your sprinklers are not hitting the street, driveway, walkways and other impermeable surfaces
- Use a rain harvesting system for irrigaqtion applications
- Do not leave the hose running while washing your car
- Sweep your sidewalks and driveways
- Use fertilizers and pesticides sparingly and carefully. (Residential use of pesticides accounts for about 8% of all pesticide applications. Urban runoff accounts for about 14% of common water pollution and just over half of that is due to residential use of fertilizers).