There’s no need to keep paying a high water bill each summer. With the recommendations provided by an irrigation system audit, and by using the latest golf course soil moisture management technology, you can reduce your water use without compromising the health of your landscape. Soils Alive has offered organic lawncare since 1997. As DFW faces an ongoing water shortage, here's our 10 tips to save money on water this summer.
Water Smarter, Not Longer: 10 Tips to Save Money This Summer
Get an Irrigation System Audit
Soils Alive recommends you contact a licensed irrigator, to get an audit of your sprinkler system. We’re not able to audit your system (we’re not a licensed irrigation company!) but this is where you’ll want to begin. We talk to homeowners regularly who call us about brown areas in their yard and don’t know what to do. Once we have ruled out chinch bugs, and determined it was not herbicide burn, we will ask them to turn on their sprinklers, and very often a sprinkler head is not functioning properly and the area isn’t getting proper water. That's when it's time to call a professional irrigator.
With an irrigation system audit, you’ll get a report of everything that needs to be done to get your system back into working order. It's common to have problems and not even know. We’ve heard from our clients that they reduced their water use by 20% or more, just by repairing their system. It’s money well spent.
Get a Soil Moisture Sensor
You might already have a rain sensor connected to your sprinkler system. But you can also add a soil sensor to your irrigation system, to shut off sprinklers if the soil is still moist from a recent rain. A rain sensor only detects active rainfall, so your sprinklers don’t run while it is raining (to remain compliant with your city code).
A soil sensor detects the soil moisture level, which is really what matters. You don’t need to run your sprinkler if you got a heavy rain. You can skip that irrigation cycle if the soil is moist. A rain sensor won’t stop your sprinkler, but a soil sensor will. The cost of the soil sensor will pay for itself over a year or so of lower water bills, and you can take it with you if you decide to sell your home.
Use the Latest Golf Course Technology
Golf courses use the latest science and technology of turfgrass root zone moisture management. Why not use what they use for your lawn? Spraying a surfactant will only help break water surface tension, helping water soak into your soil better. But that’s not what the golf courses do. There’s a better way to help your turfgrass access water.
Harsh summer sunlight and heat sucks water out of the soil from evaporation. A humectant product will capture this water before it evaporates out of the soil, delivering drops of water directly to plant roots. That means more of the water your sprinklers deliver actually gets used by the roots, allowing you to use less water.....and water less frequently. Soils Alive buys this product at wholesale prices, and we can get you a quote to treat your lawn, shrubs, and trees for benefits that last 90 days….all summer long.
Water in Cycles
When clay soil is dry, it cracks open. When it gets wet it swells shut, so only the top 1” may be wet and it will shed extra water that falls too quickly. Clay soils are common in DFW and they have very small pore spaces, so running your sprinklers for too long can lead to water running off, instead of absorption.
A surfactant will help reduce this runoff, but it’s also a good idea to water in short cycles (10-15 minutes), and repeat the cycle 2-3 times on your watering day, that way the clay soil can actually soak it all in. Watering less frequently, and deeper into your soil profile, will help encourage healthier, deeper roots. You can get a $15 soil moisture meter online, and after running your sprinklers check to make sure that your soil is moist 6” deep, not just 4”. If not, water a bit more. Then wait for the soil to dry out a bit before giving your lawn another watering....to drive roots deeper.
Mow Your Grass Higher
In the hot summer, you can mow your grass higher, taking only 1" off 4" tall leaves. A higher blade length promotes root growth for turfgrasses, and it also provides more shade of the soil surface, where the sunlight evaporates moisture away. A taller lawn may look different aesthetically from a short-mowed lawn, but for the health of your lawn, higher mowing in summer time will save you the most money on water.
Build Organic Matter with Compost
You can spend $50 on a soil test, but honestly most DFW lawns need more organic matter. Spend that $50 to buy some organic compost, and add a 1/4" top dressing to your lawn, to block harsh sun from hitting bare soil and sucking moisture away from grass roots. Compost will over time get worked into your soil by earthworms, which will increase the organic matter % in your soil.
Organic matter soaks up water like a sponge, releasing it to plant roots as needed. If a soil test shows organic matter of only 2, 3, or 4%....adding a topdressing of compost can help you reach a target of 5% organic matter. A $4 bag from a Big Box store covers about 100 square feet with 1/4". Your lawn care company can also buy in bulk from Living Earth and spread it for you.
Protect Your Soil Life (and Wildlife)
Kill weeds using spot-treatment herbicide instead of broadcast herbicide. Some lawn care companies mix herbicide into their liquid fertilizer, spraying it everywhere in your lawn even where there are no weeds. By taking the extra time to only apply herbicide to weeds directly, using a spot treatment, you can reduce herbicide use by 80%.
Herbicides are pesticides. They harm the life in your soil even when used as directed, and that soil life is what earthworms rely on to loosen up your clay soils and let rainfall soak in. Herbicides can also harm butterfly caterpillars, like the Monarch. Spot treatment reduces risk and reduces harm to soil life by up to 80%. Soils Alive only offers spot-treatment for herbicide applications, and we can also recommend DIY organic solutions for weeds.
Aerate Your Lawn to Add Oxygen
If your lawn has very heavy, compacted clay, think about scheduling a core aeration. An aeration will pull small plugs out of your soil, about 2-4” deep, that allow water and oxygen better access to your grass roots. Yes, grass roots need oxygen and the reason roots cannot grow deeply into compacted soil is because there is little to no oxygen in the soil.
You can do a core aeration on established sod (not new sod). Aerations are done only in spring and fall when temperatures are cooler so as not to stress the lawn. If you plan to top dress with compost, doing a core aeration first will create pockets where the compost can settle into.
Recharge Your Soil Life
Most DFW lawns have little soil life. That’s why they are so compacted. New home construction involves scraping the site, pouring the foundation, and then leveling the lawn and maybe putting down a few inches of topsoil before laying sod. Years and years of excessive herbicide usage will also degrade soil life, and so when you bought your home, your lawn may already be in poor shape underground.
Soils Alive offers a Liquid Compost treatment plan that contains worm compost tea, seaweed extracts, healthy microbes, and humates….all of which help to recharge your soil life that is responsible for looser, healthier soil.
Plant Drought-Tolerant Natives
If you have problem areas in your landscape (deep shade, or harsh sunny spots with radiant heat from concrete), consider adding native plants. If you have deep shade under a live oak, it can be hard to get St. Augustine or Zoysia to grow. Native groundcover plants can help cover the soil to avoid erosion.
Native plants often have deeper root systems than plants you’ll find at Big Box stores. Buffallograss, a native grass that gets 18” tall, has roots as deep as 5 feet. The purple coneflower is a perennial that will come back year after year, providing beauty in full or part sun. With natives, you will use much less water, compared to plants that are not used to our hot, dry DFW summers.
Organic Lawncare Since 1997
We hope that you'll try out these 10 tips to reduce your water bill. Start with an irrigation system audit, and then add other items to your water conservation plan as you're able to.
Did you know that by 2040, DFW will be home to another 2 million people? Our North Texas region is expected to need much more water in the years ahead, and conserving water continues to be an urgent priority for city governments.
At Soils Alive, we believe that an organic approach to lawn care will help DFW manage its water wisely. Using less pesticides will keep the water in our creeks and rivers safer. By introducing more native plants, we can restore habitat for our native birds and butterflies. And for our turfgrass, using the latest tools and technology that have been developed allow us to get more out of using less water.
If you have concerns about your lawn, give us a call or click below to tell us more about your lawn Our organic lawncare plans start at just $45/month for the average DFW lawn (5000 square feet).