Winter Watering Restrictions

Mandatory watering restrictions limit landscape irrigation to one assigned day per week from Nov. 1 through Feb. 28.

Watering restrictions also apply to drip irrigation. Sunday is not an optional watering day.

Find your watering group on our Web site or check your monthly water bill for your assigned group. If you don't comply with the watering restrictions, you could be assessed a water waste fee.

Daylight-saving time ends

When daylight-saving time ends each year, don't forget to reset your irrigation clock as well as your indoor clocks. Daylight-saving time ends the first Sunday in November at 2 a.m.

Sprinkler watering tips

Use the cycle and soak sprinkler irrigation method, which allows the soil to absorb water slowly and reduces the risk of runoff.

Set each sprinkler station to run:

• 3 times a day
• 1 hour apart
• 4 minutes each watering

Don't water on windy or rainy days

Winds can send sprinkler water in unintended directions, saturating the sidewalk more than the lawn. Watering during rainy periods can cause soil over-saturation and wasteful runoff. Shut off the sprinklers on windy or rainy days and save as much as 500 gallons of water a day.

To keep landscapes healthy, follow these tips:

• Aerate your lawn. Aeration pulls tiny plugs from the soil, allowing water to be better absorbed.
  
  
• Bermuda goes dormant in the winter so it doesn't need much water. Irrigate bermuda grass just once per month November through March.
  
  
• Avoid afternoon winds and reduce the risk of icing by watering in the midmorning.
  
  
• Adding a protective mulch on the soil around your plants will trap moisture so you don't have to water as much.
  
  
• If frost or a freeze damages a plant, leave it alone until warmer weather arrives and new growth appears. Pruning or transplanting a damaged plant now can hurt or even kill it.
  
  
• Turn on sprinklers for a minute after you mow and scan for broken or misaligned sprinkler heads and broken pipes.

Drip watering tips

During winter, run your drip irrigation system in a single cycle of 30 to 90 minutes, one day a week. The length of watering should be determined by the emitter flow rate, soil type and weather conditions. See our drip watering tips for details.