Water Conservation Tips: What Can You Do?

In California right now we’re in a serious drought. That means water conservation is at an all time high. With these few simple water conservation tips, sponsored by Scotts® EveryDrop™, we can reduce water usage and maximize other options.

I’ve lived in San Diego all of my life. And for as long as I can remember, we’ve always been in a drought. Water conservation is just something we do. I remember learning about 2 minute showers at 6th Grade Camp. And actually trying to recreate them at home. And we’ve never had a lush green lawn during the summer and fall months unless there was a good rain storm. Brown lawns with a hint of green is just normal.

Adjusting to this way of life may be easy for our family, but for others it can be a hard adjustment. So I’ve compiled a list of everything we’re doing at our home to reduce our water usage and reuse the water that we do use. Keep in mind that we are a family of 5 with multiple pets (including a large pond outside with fish and a turtle). Every water used in this house is considered precious.

Water Conservation Tips: What Can You Do?

1. Rain Barrels

After the City of San Diego offered rebates for rain barrels, my husband went out and picked up two for our old house. After the first big rain storm both were filled to the brim with water we could use for our lawn, plants, and vegetable garden. Talk about a savings in water. We were stoked! Each rainfall would easily fill our rain barrels and we found that we’d need even MORE room to store all of the rain. So we considered upgrading. Until we decided to move to a new home.

So whe we moved to our new house and found out that the rebate was per residence, and not per family, we jumped at getting a few more rain barrels for the new home as well. And we went up in size. The rain barrels we first got were 2 70 gallon barrels. This time we’re upgrading to 3. Since we have a larger house, we have a larger roof and more water collecting potential. By utilizing the rain we collect to water our plants and edibles, we are saving on using water from our sprinkler system. But first we have to put up rain gutters…

2. Greywater Reuse

In addition to using the water from our rain barrels, we’re also going to be taking advantage of using the greywater from our washer in the garage to keep our lawns green. With kids, we know we want to have a green space for them to play. And while most of our landscaping is drought resistant plants or edibles (more on those later), having a patch of lawn IS doable in a drought area by utilizing all of the water we have available.

I’ll be posting about our greywater collection system and what we use to collect the water and how we use it to water our grass. We’ll steer clear of using it to water the garden due to the soap residue from our eco-friendly laundry soap.

3. Desert Scaping | Drought Resistant Plants

Even though we want to have a patch of green lawn for our kids, the rest of our landscape – except the edibles – are drought resistant plants. I was able to get some great ideas on what plants to use in our design on one of my many visits to City Farmer’s Nursery. I highly suggest heading to a local nursery to talk to them about your options.

I love that I can still have a beautiful landscape while saving on our use of water. Plus I’d rather be using the water we do use on our edibles or the lawn so choosing plants native to Southern California was important. And there are quite a lot of plants that are native to this area to use in our yards. The added bonus? Because they’re so used to this climate, they take less care. Most of the plants, once they have been established, can survive by just waiting for the little rainfall that comes and some pruning a few times a year.

4. Water Maximizer

When we do water our lawn, we want to make sure that each drop of water we put in it is used efficiently. Especially because we’re limited to watering only two days a week and 5 minutes per station based on the new Mandatory Water Use Restrictions in the City of San Diego.

By using Scotts® EveryDrop™ in our yard we can do just that. EveryDrop™ is a unique blend of wetting agents designed to help move water into the soil, consistently and evenly. This helps to reduce wasteful runoff and pooling. Whether relying on rain, sprinklers or hoses from our greywater, EveryDrop™ helps to make the most of available water.

Well-fed lawns and plants are more efficient at using available water so make sure to feed your plants and edibles with fertilizer to maximize their potential.

5. Plant Edibles Instead

While other plants may look better, planting edibles instead means that your using that rainwater you are collecting to feed your family, not just water some random plants in your yard to keep them green and looking pretty. By planting edibles in your yard, you can create a beautiful landscape while providing a food source. Plus, gardening with kids can make their backyard (or front yard!) into a learning experience that’s fun!

You’d be surprised at how pretty some edibles are. I have two planters out front filled with various lettuces because they’re so pretty. And you’d be surprised at just how pretty an artichoke is when it turns into a flower and goes to seed. Gorgeous!