I recently saw an article on the DFW Channel 33 website regarding the water restrictions in Fort Worth.
Fort Worth agriculture and landscaping expert Elizabeth Samudio, owner of Elizabeth Anna's Old World Garden, spent tuesday at reading friends preschool in aledo — working on landscaping that, once established, will be totally self-sustaining.
She says, if you have the right plants, two days of watering should be enough.
Two days of water should be enough if you "deep water" as well as use multiple start times, meaning that you will run a regular cycle and the water will penetrate the soil and then you will water again once the water has been absorbed.
If you allowed the water to percolate into the soil, it prevents run off and waste of water.
"Give up the lawn. More than likely the lawn won't even die. It'll get brown, it'll burn, but that's not as expensive to replace," said Samudio.
Giving up the lawn in these extreme temperatures, means that it will most likely die; who will be happy having to replace their lawn.?
Even with restrictions, you can water with a hose. Samudio's biggest tip: water your trees.
"Water the things that really count, like trees. For one, trees set up a sustainable system, and those are really hard to replace," said Samudio.
It is important to water your trees as well as your lawn.
The stage 1 water restrictions are not as bad as they sound for your landscape. It's actually beneficial to "deep water", and this is the perfect excuse to put this practice in place.
Another way to deal water restrictions is to install drip irrigation systems, which allows you to water as often as you like since it saves water consumption.