5 Steps for Outdoor Water Conservation & Sustainable Landscaping
Special promotional content provided by the local water company Veolia (fka Suez).
Across the thirteen Westchester communities where Veolia operates, the City of Rye represents 9.4% of accounts but accounts for 10.4% of water consumption. What can you do to save?
Veolia offers rebates for its Rye customers on water saving products–including irrigation controllers, washing machines, toilets and showerheads–learn more about the rebates & save.
Households use twice as much water during the summer months compared to the rest of the year, almost entirely due to an increase in outdoor lawn and garden watering.
As the dry, arid weather sets in, people tend to adjust by overwatering, a tendency that harms both their lawns and the environment, putting a great strain on the community’s water supply.
Here are five simple steps Rye homeowners can take to reduce outdoor water use:
#1 Xeriscaping
Xeriscaping is the practice of landscaping with slow-growing, drought tolerant native plants to conserve water and reduce yard trimmings. With Xeriscape landscaping, residents can reduce outdoor water usage by up to 50 percent and spend less time on garden maintenance. The US EPA offers guidance on plant lists.
#2 Smart Controllers for Sprinklers
Outdoor sprinklers can account for 40 percent of household water use during the summer. Smart controllers are irrigation clocks that automatically adjust irrigation run times in response to environmental changes.
They use sensors and weather information to manage watering times and frequency. As environmental conditions vary, the Smart controller increases or decreases irrigation.
#3 Water-Efficient Sprinklers
Water-efficient irrigation sprinklers deliver water more evenly to the landscape than traditional sprinklers and regulate pressure to help ensure a constant flow rate. These sprinklers have earned the WaterSense label, are best used with WaterSense labeled controllers and help provide more water-efficient irrigation equipment options to consumers and irrigation professionals.
#4 Rotating Sprinkler Nozzles
The latest innovation in sprinkler technology, these nozzles turn a standard pop-up spray head into a precision device that saves water. These nozzles shoot multi-trajectory, rotating streams that apply water more slowly and uniformly than conventional sprays, and heads are more resistant to wind, less likely to mist and significantly reduce run-off onto streets and sidewalks.
In many cases, you can update your existing sprinkler heads with new rotary nozzles without having to replace the entire sprinkler body. On average, replacing one conventional fan spray nozzle with a rotating nozzle could save up to 1,300 gallons per year.
#5 Drip Systems
Drip irrigation, or trickle irrigation, is an irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters.
Drip irrigation systems have minimal evaporation and overspray as well as lower water use and simpler installation than a traditional underground sprinkler system. Drip systems can also prevent an overly moist environment that promotes fungal diseases and provide a gentle, precise watering that minimizes runoff and erosion.
Veolia offers rebates for its Rye customers on water saving products–including irrigation controllers, washing machines, toilets and showerheads–learn more about the rebates & save.
