Now is the perfect time to make a change and replace your water-guzzling grass with a more resilient WaterSaver yard! You made it through another hot, dry summer and your excitement for fall isn’t about pumpkin spice lattes or Halloween. It’s that your water bill will be smaller so you can afford plenty of PSLs.
It’s not uncommon for many homeowners to experience sticker shock in summer. When I conduct irrigation consultations, I find as much as 75 percent of water use comes from in-ground sprinkler systems. Grass (St. Augustine, zoysia, Bermuda, etc.) requires a lot of water in summer to keep from getting crispy and brown or dying. Plus, green lawns in August means mowing in triple-digit heat.
Now is the perfect time to break that cycle and make a change — with a more resilient WaterSaver yard!
Fall is the best time for planting because your new nursery plants won’t have to weather brutal summer heat and sun. Instead, they’ll have all fall and a relatively mild winter to grow strong roots long before next summer.
Start planning how you can transform your yard with native, drought-tolerant plants. Don’t get overwhelmed. Choose a small area you can tackle this fall. Make it a nature niche or a place for pollinators to play.
By Gail Gallegos, a SAWS conservation consultant with deep roots in San Antonio and the Hill Country. She spent her youth climbing trees, playing in the Guadalupe River, and exploring the outdoors. This drives her passion for nature and our diverse environment, especially our most precious natural resource — water. Given the choice, she would be outside all the time.