In general the most efficient way to water your landscape is to water deep, less frequently, and early in the morning. Watering deep at longer intervals promotes deep rooting of plant material, which creates healthier plants. While it is true that different plants have different water requirements, plants adapt to their environment. Plants that are watered daily adapt to the daily watering by producing less roots and more foliage. As a result they become much more vulnerable to drought conditions and or system failures. It’s hard to give advice that will work right for every situation, but start by watering less frequently, every 2 days maximum. Let’s say you used to water each zone for X minutes every day, try watering X½ every 2 days, this will reduce your consumption by 25% and build healthier root systems. In some situations this may not be possible. Examples are new plant materials, hanging baskets, or soils with extremely low water holding capacity such as sand. Water for longer intervals but not too long, soil that contains a lot of clay can only absorb so much water and after it reaches the saturation point you’re basically washing fertilizers down the storm drain. A good way to gauge watering time is to observe how long it takes for each zone to produce run off. Although it is more difficult to program, watering an area 3 times for 5 minutes with 1 hour intervals is far better then watering once for 15 minutes. This type of scheduling is called cycle and soak and it is very effective for watering steep slopes, narrow strips, clay soils or for just maximizing water absorption. Watering early in the morning when evaporation is at its lowest point is also helpful. Watering early in the evening can promote fungus growth and should be avoided. Use mulches like bark to absorb and retain water. (Want a controller that can do all this automatically, and get a huge rebate from your water district for installing it? Read the paragraphs about ET controllers under Sprinkler Rebates and Quality Replacement Parts.)

Finally if you’re not around, or you don’t have time to shut your system off in the rain, have us install a rain sensor. With rebates of $75 dollars from most water districts, the average cost for a home owner installation is less then $75.00. This amount can easily be recouped in one season. (For more information see the paragraphs about Rain Sensors under Sprinkler Rebates and Quality Replacement Parts.)

The following link takes you to the Seattle Public Utilities web site where you can view several graphs pertaining to our current water supply. Most of the water districts on the east side of Lake Washington buy their water from Seattle Public Utilities which gets its water from 2 large reservoirs located in the cascades. One of the two is the Tolt Reservoir located just east of Carnation and the other is Chester Morse reservoir located South East of North Bend. These two reservoirs rely on snow pack to get them through the traditionally dry summer months and when snow packs are low in April water restrictions are a possibility. Not all districts buy from Seattle, a couple that I know of that don’t, include Union Hill and Ames Lake water districts. The districts that don’t buy from Seattle generally pump their water from wells. This means that these water districts may have water restrictions despite the fact that there is 20 feet of snow in the mountains. The graphs compare current data to historical data and include year to date rain fall, current snow pack, current reservoir levels, and consumption rates. Click the link below to view their site.

Seattle Public Utilities

http://www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Water_System/Water_Supply/COS_004041.asp