You can have a beautiful yard and save water too

Saving Water in your landscape doesn't have to be ugly. Beautiful landscapes with year-round interest does take planning and skill to match plants with compatible water needs and all-season interest.

Photo courtesy of Perfection Landscape
Installing a pond surrounded with low-water use plants is a great way to create a calming accent to the landscape.

Employing the skills of a professional landscape designer such as Cindy Poore of Perfection Landscape could save a lot of trial and error, not to mention money. Cindy, her husband Darrell, and their crews have been helping people manage and build beautiful landscapes that decorate the scenery of their client's lives since 1972.

"Attitudes are finally changing toward saving water in the landscape. I find more and more people are willing to give up the huge lawns that were standard just a couple of years ago." Remarked Cindy.

"People are excited to experiment and try a more environmentally-friendly landscape. In addition, properly managing their water also means less maintenance for them and results in real savings. According to Cindy, water thrifty landscapes can be just as beautiful and lush feeling as standard landscapes with the right choices. Putting the plants in the right locations on the property will result in less pruning and maintenance. "It doesn't pay to fight Mother Nature" said Cindy "you have to keep the plants' mature size and shape in mind when choosing plants for the landscape".

Perfection Landscape does more than just design and install water efficient landscapes and drip systems. Their 35 years experience of managing the landscapes of both residential properties and commercial and government facilities have given them a broad base of experience to add to their many licenses and certifications.

The company advises people on proper sprinkler scheduling, and installs low volume spray systems for lawns that are wind resistant and apply water very slowly. The company uses special sprinkler nozzles, MP rotators, that are new to the market along with special pressure compensating sprinkler bodies that allow water to be applied slow enough for the soil to absorb the water as it is applied. This method is perfect for slopes because it reduces or eliminates runoff of sprinkler water onto sidewalks and streets.

"Often people will call us in to landscape the back yards of their new home and we find that their sprinkler clock is still set the way the landscaper left it when they moved in two years ago. The water is just rolling off the lawn into the gutter. People need to understand their landscape's water needs and to take control of the amount of water they apply. "The best part of my job is to consult with people and take the mystery out of water management of their landscapes so they can do it for themselves," said Cindy.

One of the most beautiful ways to save water in the landscape is to install a pond or waterfall. The natural rock ponds and waterfalls that Perfection Landscape installs recycle the existing water in the pond continuously.

Additional water is only added to allow for evaporation. Water plants such as lilies iris and hyacinth shade the water and reduce the evaporation so a pond will use less water than a lawn of equal size. The ponds and waterfalls offer a calming and tranquil accent to the landscape that cools the environment and saves water.

-- Perfection Landscape

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