Yuccas, sages and WaterSaver plants don’t need all that extra water, even on the hottest summer day.
In newer subdivisions, when it’s done right, irrigation is carefully laid out to water the grass and the landscape beds separately. This hydrozoning technique groups plants with similar water needs so thirsty plants (like grass) can be watered together, according to the logic of the irrigation controller. In practice, this means turfgrass should be separated from the landscape beds.
But since most new landscape beds are already planted with fairly drought-tolerant material, one way to really lower your summer water bill is to simply turn off the irrigation in the xeriscape landscape beds.
That’s right, those yuccas, sages and muhly grasses likely don’t need all that extra water. On a summer day, this is natural water savings sitting in plain sight. It often comes as a surprise to many people that their landscape beds need less water than turfgrass. But unless you’re growing annuals or vegetables, the beds are often the most overwatered part of the entire landscape.
Here’s a clue: water-saver plants may wilt and curl up their leaves on a hot summer afternoon. But if leaves look fully recovered the next morning, that’s a pretty good sign they’re performing as they should: well-adapted plants can fold their leaves to reduce their sun exposure. Native WaterSaver plants specialize in this kind of self-care: many have fuzzy, thick or pale leaf surfaces and other adaptations to beat the heat.
Of course, if your plants are still struggling the next morning, that is the sign they need a good deep watering. It’s not unusual to have to do this a couple of times a week, especially for new plantings and plants with larger leaf surfaces (like tropicals).
If you switch to hand watering just the plants that need it, you’ll soon see how drought-resilient many common landscape plants in South Texas are, and that you can retire them from your regular irrigation schedule. Remember, most are selected for their ability to chug along in summer heat. Instead, pay attention to the ones that aren’t performing well. (They’ll be candidates for relocating next winter.)
The takeaway? Even in the hot, dry days of August, if you can skip watering the landscape beds, you may be able to cut water use in half.
When you see the savings on your water bill, you may prefer to keep it that way.
