Seasonal Landscape Tips

Your landscape has different needs during each season. Use the tips in this section to help keep your yard healthy year round.

Year-round advice

Use these tips to keep your landscape healthy no matter what the season.

• Adjust sprinkler heads so they don't spray walls, driveways or sidewalks.

• Use the most efficient types of nozzles and irrigation clocks.

• Check the sprinkler system weekly and immediately replace broken or missing sprinklers with identical parts.

• For best results, shoot for "head-to-head" coverage. That means the spray of one sprinkler should reach the head of the sprinkler closest to it. Make sure grass does not block the spray. Level all sprinkler heads to grade to prevent spray blockage or tripping hazards.

• Adjust your irrigation clock seasonally and comply with Mandatory watering restrictions.

• Use a drip irrigation system to water trees and shrubs and water appropriately. Experts agree that running drip irrigation less frequently is much better for plants than daily watering.

• Monitor how many minutes you can run your spray irrigation system before water begins to run off the property. Stop the cycle at that point. Allow the water to fully absorb before running another cycle.

• Water areas in the shade about 30 percent less than sunny areas.

• Fine tune watering times for each station to account for different watering requirements due to exposure, shade and sprinkler output.

• To eliminate runoff, set your irrigation clock to cycle 2 to 4 start times (no longer than 5 minutes each), 1 to 2 hours apart to allow water to soak into the soil. For example: water 3 times for 4 minutes, instead of 12 minutes all at once.