Six Ways To Reduce Your Outdoor Water Consumption

Last week we took a look at seven ways to reduce your water consumption indoors - by as much as 5000 gallons a month! And the great thing about reducing indoor water use is that you also reduce your water heating costs.

Today, we'll move outside, and look at ways to further reduce your water 'footprint'. As you might expect, most of the savings revolve around your landscape and how you water - but you might be surprised at some of the ways you can save!

1. Install a drip system

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate, but could be time consuming
Cost: Varies - $100 to $1000 typical
Side Benefit: Saves you time and automates watering.

Drip systems are the most efficient means to effectively water your gardens, trees and shrubs.  Most plants benefit most from infrequent, deep watering.  This promotes strong root growth, making for a healthier, more drought tolerant plant.

Drip systems work by delivering water straight to a plant.  Emitters, rated in gallons per hour, are placed within the root zone, and are allowed to run for a long duration.  This allows for deep penetration of the water, and less evaporation as compared to pop-up sprinklers.

Drip systems can be entirely automated on a timer, or connected to an outdoor hose bib.  Typically, you'll want to create more than one zone, organizing plants with similar water requirements on the same zone.

As an example, here in the desert I have a three zone system - one for high water use plants (like vegetables), one for medium water use plants, and one for low water use plants.  In the middle of summer I water once a week for about 2 hours.


Installing a drip system is actually pretty easy, but requires some planning and some manual labor (digging).  If you go fully-automated with buried valves, there may be some pipe soldering required.

Low-flow and drip kits can be purchased for small installations, and a lot of water delivery options exist (such as dripline, micor sprayers, emitters, etc).  It is probably best to browse the hardware store first and review some online guides such as the irrigation tutorial.

2. Water At Night Or At Sunrise

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free

Watering at night reduces evaporation. Further, it is typically less windy, so more of your water will actually hit the ground.

In humid parts of the country, it is better to water at sunrise or immediately before to avoid mold and fungus problems.

3. Use a Quality Hose Nozzle

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $5 to $20

Using a quality hose nozzle allows you to stop wasting water as you walk around the yard or wash the car.

4. Mulch Your Plants

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $5 to $20

Using organic mulch (like leaves, bark, pine needles, etc) will help reduce evaporation and save on water. Further, mulch will even out soil temperatures and organic mulch provides a steady stream of nutrients to the plants.

Inorganic mulch (rubber chips, gravel) is also a water saver and never/rarely has to be replenished.

5. Collect Rainwater From your Gutters

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: $50 to $150

Rain barrels are easily attached to downspouts and typically store 50 to 75 gallons of water. Position one near a patio or courtyard and use it to water plants in pots and other nearby plants.

6. Fertilize your Lawn Less and Cut Grass Higher

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Saves money

The rule of thumb for most lawns is four annual fertilizations. If you decide to reduce the amount of fertilizer or cut one application, your grass won't grow so fast and will require less water.

Similarly, cut your grass on the lawn mower's highest setting, especially in the middle of summer. This not only provides a mulch effect by shading the soil, but will reduce your work load by not having to cut the grass so often!