Weekly Lawn Watering Guide Faye Rutishauser Water Conservation Coordinator Division of Water Resources

The Problem The average homeowner over waters their lawn between 70,000-300,000 gallons every summer. Northern Utah lawns need to be irrigated around 46 times and most are watering 70-156 times. Promoting water conservation for over two decades. Research has shown that outdoor use is where we use the most water. European ancestry

Stats Most people don’t understand how much water plants need. Most of the waste happens in the spring and the fall. #Wait to Water Most people don’t understand how much water plants need. Takes time, money and effort

DWRe Weekly Lawn Watering Guide What’s The Big Idea? DWRe Weekly Lawn Watering Guide Due to the people misuderstandin the correlation between weather, plant needs and watering and location. We decided to create a simple guide. that tells people how often to water based off of the previous weeks weather, upcoming storms and plant needs. The categories are color coded to indicate by county how many times per week the irrigation system should run.

Evapotranspiration (ET) The Science As you know we receive moisture naturally from precipitation in the form of snow, rain and sprinklers. Moisture is lost due to evaporation from the soil and transpiration by the plant, I like to think of it as sweating. These two actions combined is where the term evapotranspiration or ET comes into play. Evapotranspiration (ET)

How It Works Solar Radiation Temperature Wind Humidity Effective Rain 31 physical and virtual weather stations all around the state record data every single hour. The information collected is Solar Radiation, Temperature, Wind and Humidity. These factors affect how much the plant transpires as well as water that drains below the root zone or evaporates into the sky.

Irrigation Requirement Trust Me Use The Guide IR = ET – ER Where: IR = Irrigation Requirement ETC = Crop specific ET ER = Effective Rain Then complex calculations determine how much water needs to be replaced in the soil for roots to take up based on water lost to evaporation, transpiration and effective rain.

Sprinkler Run Time Rotating- 45 minutes Fixed- 25 minutes Along with letting peole know how often to water we recommend watering times. Fixed- 25 minutes

Microclimates Microclimates in your yard or even city may require adjustments in your watering schedule.

You can find the guide on our website, download our app and follow us on social media. We bring people in with humor, and teach them about water conservation while they are here. This is more than a funny post. While it is entertaining, it is giving watering recommendations, and educating about letting roots dig deeper. This broadens the tent, broadens the reach and increases our education efforts. This post had more than 100 shares and has reached almost 20,000 people. Those people are talking to their neighbors, and we feel it can have an impact.

Faye Rutishauser State of Utah Water Conservation Coordinator Utah Division of Water Resources ----------- (801) 538-7268 frutishauser@utah.gov ConserveWater.Utah.Gov @ConserveUtahWater @UtahSavesH2O