Outdoor Water Conservation Tips

We can all do our part to conserve water and to lessen our impact on our watershed. Try one or more of these conservation tips from Water: Use It Wisely and watch the savings add up. A few of our favorite outdoor water conservation tips are listed here:

• Water your lawn only when it needs it. Use a spade, trowel, or soil probe and turn over 2 to 3 inches of soil. If the top 2 to 3 inches are dry, it’s time to water.
  
• Water your lawn deeply during the coolest time of the day, either the early morning or evening, to minimize evaporation.
  
• Adjust sprinklers so only your lawn is watered and not your house, driveway, sidewalk, or street.
  Raise your lawn mower blade to at least 3 inches high. Mow often and leave grass clippings on the lawn to help the soil retain moisture.
  
• Choose shrubs and drought-tolerant groundcovers, instead of grass, for hard-to-water areas such as slopes or isolated strips.
  
• Use less fertilizer and sweep any that falls on sidewalks back into your vegetation after fertilizer application.
  
• To clean your sidewalk or driveway, sweep up debris with a broom and toss in the garbage. Don’t use a hose to spray debris into the street.
  
• Cover your pool to reduce evaporation and check for leaks around your pumps.