Water Management - Ask, Listen, Then Do Something!

As I'm writing this article we have finally received some of our long overdue rains.  Normal rainfall from July 1^st to June 30^th is approximately 10''.  That is only about 20% of what a lawn needs in a year's time.  Also factor in that equation that when the rains come, the air temperature is cooler, ground temperatures are much cooler, thus our plants and turf area demands for water are much less.  Ideally we could use that rain in summer.  The last few summers have yielded us some summer storms.  Have you noticed that our seasons seem to come later in the year than the past years?

So why did you pick this title Randy, you may ask yourself?  The title came from many years of being in the community association marketplace.  Many associations have been and will always be in the market to save some dollars on their landscape water bills.  For almost every association, landscape and landscape water costs represent at least 50-60 % of their operating budget.  Some board members figure the best ways to save money on their landscaper costs are to bid their contracts on a yearly or "bi-yearly" basis.  This may initially seem prudent.  However, when constantly turning over your landscaper there is no continuity.  It takes at least 6 months for a landscaper to become familiar with your site yet alone the irrigation system.  The association's expectations are that the lawns are to stay green at all times.  So when a new landscaper is hired they may tend to set the controllers to run a little longer to keep the lawn green.

When the board constantly shops and finds a new landscaper at cheaper dollars, this initial irrigation controller programming may never get adjusted as time goes on.  Their cheap price only affords them time to do the basics of mowing, trimming, weeding and clean up.  The site may look ok, but who's minding the irrigation controller or tap where the association's dollars flow out of?

Now let's get down to where I actually conceived the title from.  Many, many, many boards ask for reports or suggestions, on how to save money on their astronomical (board's words) water bills.  Us landscapers then spend a considerate amount of (FREE) time to evaluate their irrigation systems.  A punch list or report is generated, and we attend a monthly board meeting to discuss this report.  This report or evaluation (if done by a water management expert) is worth its weight in gold.  It describes exactly what is wrong with an irrigation system.  99% of what is wrong with an irrigation system wastes an association's money on their water bill.  Yet time and time again, associations do nothing with these recommendations on what to do to save money.  Granted, sometimes it costs more to fix a problem then the water savings, but that is less than 10% of the time.

Sometimes the costs run into the tens of thousands of dollars for upgrades.  Budget for this over the next few years.  An irrigation system is just like your landscape, pool, fencing, roofs, building etc. - they wear out and need replacing.  Our water is corrosive and it wears out valves, sprinklers and nozzles in 5-7 years or less.

Your associations may be spending money on irrigation systems but typically that goes to vandalism and repairs, very rarely to upgrades.  Upgrades or renovating an irrigation system can be a high dollar ticket item.  But if we budget for them over a few years, some of these dollars for water bills will be staying in the associations bank to help fund the next go around of irrigation system upgrades.

Randy Newhard is President of New Way Professional Landscape Services. Randy is also a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor, and Nationally Certified Landscape Technician in Irrigation.