Good topic! Last year we turned off the automatic sprinklers and haven't turned them on since. Whatever died, died. It's one reason (the other reason is neglect!) that my garden looks so bad this year, I think. But a surprising number of things survived and I'm in the process of moving things around to fill in the gaps.

Of course there are a few water-guzzlers that I may not be able to live without, but I'll keep those in containers close to the door or in the shade patio so I can water them by hand.

I'll feel better about my water use and I'll also feel better about my water bill!

Kate

We're adhering to the watering restrictions of a couple hours twice a week. Our city has put in reclaimed water for this use-it's not well water. I'm starting to mulch more and I have my beloved rain barrel for hand watering. I've got it in a really good spot so it's been full all winter. We'll see how it goes through rainy season.
Things look pretty good so far and I think we're using water more effectively.

rain barrel. my garden sink (used to wash messy pots, messy hands, messy laundry, garden produce) drains into a 5-g bucket that i use to water my fruit trees. LOTS OF MULCH. i cannot praise the microsprinkler systems enough -- significantly cuts down on water use. my hope is not to use my traditional sprinkler this summer, and use only my micros on a timer.

and, i'm with kate -- sometimes, you suck it up and decide that a plant's not worth the water. selective survival of the fittest. it's amazing what will go dormant and spring back to life when the rains start.

Hi
I connected my water savrer to my garden pool and now have 1200 gallons of water lol Have been so surprised that
even though water is only collected from half the roof and this never ending drought it has remained full .
My orchids can't be thirsty and fish gotta swim lol gary

We are only allowed to water once a week in PB County. But we can hand water anytime. Ever tried to hand water an orchard? I now regret bringing in so much fill after the hurricanes. We used to be in a very flood-prone area. Not anymore-now we are high and dry:(. My bog has had water in it maybe twice in 2 years.

We save dishwashing water for the patio plants. Have rain-barrels, still need to set them up. Am going to the Waterpalozza at Mounts to hopefully learn more about water conservation. The gray-water from the washing machine has worked out great for the Bamboo and Banana beds.

I noticed the micro-watering sytems in use at a local nursery. Looks efficient, but it would never work here with dogs and chickens that would tear out the lines. Don't the lines/drip sets, get gummed up from well water?

We never water the "lawn." It survives on its own.

It is going to be tough... I'm dreading summer.

Lisa

Maybe this is a dumb question, but, can you have rain barrels if you do not have gutters on your house?

I don't have gutters and have seen all of your great rain barrels. I'd like one of my own, but not sure if it's possible due to no gutters.

Does anyone know?

I actually had one set up in two places where there were no gutters. One place was under a valley in the roof and the other was just under the edge of the roof. I had the top of the barrel removed completely and covered it with screening bungeed to keep out everything. It was raised up on cinder blocks so kids couldn't reach into it. I got a deluge from the valley and some from the roof edge.

Saintpfla, you can use a barrel or another container, anywhere that you have run-off from a roof. Is there an area that water pours off- like a spot where two different roof angles meet? We have a simple rectangular home, getting gutters put on was cheap and easy. But more complicated rooflines cost more, I'm sure.

I'm having gutters put on the sheds to collect that water too.

Barrels are great because you can store the water after a downpour, until you really need it, which may be weeks later or longer. Using water collected in pools/tubs is harder since it has to be dipped out. With rainbarrels, you just open the spigot and viola!

lisa

Rain barrels, yo. (technically they are buckets)

Mine are certainly not as lovely as some of you all's, but they function just the same. No gutters here either. I just have a definite flow to the roof. Most of the water ends up in a couple of places, so that is where the buckets go. Practical.

Thanks to the weekly rain we've been getting, I haven't had to use the hose since... wow, I forget. Last year sometime. I don't have a sprinkler system. It's all by hand. So the landscaping for water use is quite by design... Because I can't be counted on to hand-water everything when it needs it, most of the thirsty plants are situated close to the house, so that any rainwater runs off directly onto them.

Everything else either is, or has learned to be, drought-tolerant. I've got some natives, but I'm also a fan of non-invasive plants from climates similar to ours but drier, like South Africa, Australia and Madagascar.

It's been a wet year so far here. Not sure why, but it is nice. Ordinarily everything is brown and crispy during this time of year. But now I might actually have to mow the lawn pretty soon :)

Well, at the last rental I turned off the sprinklers. The landlord wasn't too happy and said he could careless about the water restrictions. I had about five buckets I placed under the overhang to catch rain water and one garbage can. The garbage can worked great!! Maybe that's what I can make my rain barrel out of?
I remember when I was taking the Master Garden course and UF says micro watering systems are the best way to go. I also, know from first hand experience working for a Professional Landscape Company as a plant tech, that when you plant something or water it, the surrounding soil that is dry will steal the water from the plant. So, soaker hoses were used. I have also used them. What is anyone else's take on either one of them?? Do micro

Cliff

I removed all the grass in the large/corner lot front yard. I have all new plantings. At this point I'm having to water a lot to get them established. I will continue to have to watch and water them more during thier first summer. The ultimate goal will be to water as needed and I'm hoping that will be less than once a week. I've got a regular sprinkler system in that area because it was already there but I'll turn the timer off and set it to run manually only when needed.

I've also used 100s of bags of oak leaves hoping not only to conserve water but to build the soil/sand up. Which in turn will consever water because the water won't pour through the sand.

I have 3 rain barrels and a bunch of watering cans.

In the areas that need more water I have micro irriation. I have timers for those areas but right now I am running them as needed, manually.

Mulch mulch mulch! I have extra bags of leaves that I can use a few months from now. It is a bit of a pain having all those bag sitting in my back yard but I'll be glad when I need them.

We're only allowed to water once a week also. We can hand water anytime. So far the only thing I've been hand-watering occasionally are my strawberries. So far nothing in my yard seems to have suffered. My washing machine drains into the garden. I haven't collected dishwater yet...whats the best way to go about doing that? We will be mulching soon too so the summer heat won't completely kill the yard. Honestly though if the grass dies that just gives me an excuse to plant more natives and drought tolerant plants. I've been getting into cacti. The non prickly ones though.

Less-developed florida isn't going to have any water reserve problems. I inherited an irrigation well on my property, and I don't feel guilty using it. When I think of the amount of rainfall that hits my property in a year, and observe how quickly it drains into the sand - it's clear that there is very little run-off and very little evaporation from that deep sand. The ground is simply full of water. The stored rainfall in a year is much more than I'm ever going to pump out in a year. And this is on a plateau where all ground slopes eventually down, so other areas are more water-rich.

Ultimately, I'll get that well switched to a solar-driven 12v pump, and I'll get gutters and a cistern fitted to an existing large barn which alone could probably meet my irrigation needs.

Boy, I'm all for native plants though, too, and not irrigated after they're established. Someone on this forum told me about wax myrtle - what an excellent tip. What a great plant! In a year they've grown from sixteen inches or so to 3-4 feet. They will be quite a hedge which I'm going to need as a wind-brake, and a sun-brake too for tender plants. By the way, there is a great nursery for natives out on the Newberry road west of Gainesville. Got a Yapon Holly there as well as the wax-myrtles - excellent prices.

Wish I was there now........

We found inexpensive white plastic dishpans at Publix that fit our sinks perfectly. It was easy to get into the habit of running all sink water into them. Soapy water is fine for plants. The dishpans are also a great place to soak neglected potted plants in, the soap acts as a wetting agent and the plants perk up faster. I'm guilty of missing some of the smaller plants at times when watering.

Soaker hoses worked so so for the veggie gardens, but eventually clogged up from the mineral-rich well water. I also blew up a few when I turned the water on too high(G).

Lisa

Headline in today's paper says water rates will be going up as a result of the (mandated) curtailed use of water. Folks, there is no drought here! At least where I am. We're quite a bit above normal precip for the last 6 months.
But yes, there is a water crisis.

For years SFWMD was intentionally keeping the level of Lake Okeechobee artificially high (14-15'). Every spring they would discharge huge amounts of water and the accompanying silt and pollutants into the St. Lucie and Calloosahatchee Rivers and estuaries to lower the lake level before the wet season. The result was always huge marine life loss and heavy sedimentation with oozy muck. Clams, oysters, fish, vegetation and finally manatees and dolphins would inevitably die off or develop lesions, viruses, etc. Lots of money was wasted for a long time studying what might be causing the problem! Finally SFWMD and the state were sued to stop the disastrous discharges. Since then Lake O has been being purposely maintained at 10.5'. To further exacerbate the problem the dike at the southeast end of the lake was found to have serious problems last year. High water levels had been putting more stress on it than it was designed to hold. Lower level means less stress.
Less water means more restrictions and higher cost.

As for me, I don't have an irrigation system, so lawn areas never get water. I try to mulch everything as heavily as possible using my yard trimmings and collected lawn and leaf debris from around the neighborhood. Of course I do spend a lot of time spot watering my favorite plants or new ones. I don't have many water hogs (at least in the landscape).

1. Bahia grass (rather than St. Augustine.) Needs no irrigation, and only feritilize lightly once every three years or so.

2. Generous plant spacings, especially in the vegetable garden. I switched from a square-foot "intensive" beds to a more tradition in-ground vegetable garden with plenty of space between plants and I use a fraction of the water I was using before. I'm also spacing ornamentals/butterfly plants/roses wider and they use far less water and are generally healthier.

3. Improving the soil with lots of compost. I'm putting my money on compost rather than mulch lately.

4. Rain barrels.

5. Native shrub hedges.

6. Terracing/"leveling the planting area"/berms/sunken beds: I've found that most water runs off into the street, rather than sinking into the ground, unless I take some measures to prevent it from doing so.

7. Keeping better track of rainfall. Whenever it rains, I write however many inches we get on the calendar.

8. Cultivating (hoeing). It dramatically improves water penetration into the soil, and I find it easier than searching for, hauling, and spreading mulch (and then cleaning all the leaves and grass clippings out of my wife's car; and then pulling up all the air potatoes that were in someone's bag of leaves, etc).

Bill

We have a retention pond on our 1 1/4 acres of private property.

In the twenty years we have lived here there only 2-3 years that the water has been this high, this time of year.

Usually by the end of March you can walk all the way around it on the bank.

No drought here so far this year :)

I just have to hand water the pots.

D`Ann

Our rain barrels are cat litter buckets. Put some outside when its raining and you've got quite a bit of water. (Unfortunately no spigot thought) My husband also puts a litter bucket underneath the drip pipe for the condensation from the air conditioner. It used to stay so wet under there so he started putting the bucket underneath it. During the summer you can collect a lot of water.

I live in a neighborhood of duplexes, so my (St. Aug) yard is very small. I turned off my sprinkler system months ago, although it's on a dedicated well. It just cost too much to use city water. Next trip to HD I'll buy a good sprinkler and use it on the lawn when needed. Over the years here, I've put in more plant/mulch area and pretty much taken the attitude that if a plant can survive once established, it's a keeper.
Last weekend, my son built me a compost tumbler - can't wait for my first batch of compost! He used a heavy, commercial grade garbage can and we agreed that they would also make great rain barrels. Although I've no gutters, the roof valley is a very effective collector. This looks like our next project. Will attempt to include photo of the tumbler. cora

We have a rain barrel and several rain buckets. I use those to dunk my orchids and water the pots in those areas.
We mulch, both with the bagged stuff and the pine and oak leaves permanently in our yard.
Thankfully we have a bunch of trees and get shade through out the day. The house and plants stay so much cooler.
We have drip hoses in two shady beds under mulch and they seem to be working well.
In the greenhouse we use misters and DH is installing micros this week. The sink has a bucket under it which I use to water.
Over the last couple of years I've been picking more natives and drought tolerant plants that ever before.
We're not running the fountain in the fish pool anymore, since it has been windier than in the past.
We have no real grass to speak of so have never worried about watering that.
It's my orchids and potted flowers that take the most H2O, but I just love them so, I can't let go! Sorry, got silly ;)

Rain barrels and collection containers are great. I put mosquito dunks in. I also don't irrigate and only hand water in a crisis, I make sure to plant drought and frost tolerant plants. A couple of years ago I planted perennial peanut to replace grass as an experiment in a large part of one area of the yard and it's done great. I raise the mower up and mow it just once a year now and it looks green and beautiful all year round. I would like to replace all the grass with it. What a time and water saver that plant is.

Old Fla: Can you post a pic of your perennial peanut area. I would like to see what it looks like.
It's feels good to hear how everyone is trying to garden environmentaly. You gave me some ideas to implement. Thanks!

Are those perennial peanut rhizomes available at nurseries, generally?

i'm in tampa, and we have been very fortunate to have been receiving weekly rainfall for quite awhile (normally i'm starting to stress out a bit because we haven't had rain in quite awhile). i don't remember the last time i had to turn my sprinklers on. i use quite a few native plants as well. if i need to do some spot watering, i'll take my bucket and scoop some water out of the small lake behind my house.