Tips for saving water can be found online

FALLBROOK – A little homework can lead to saving water in the landscape. For those looking to upgrade their landscape, visit WaterSmartSDlandscaping.org.

The San Diego County Water Authority’s WaterSmart landscaping website has thousands of pictures of plants and garden designs that are well-suited to this area's Mediterranean climate. Take visual tours of beautiful, water-efficient landscapes through photographs that include hotlinks to plant information screens.

Pictures are organized by landscape category to make them easy to find. Explore galleries of ideas for back yards, front yards, hillsides, patios, planters and other outdoor living areas.

Just looking for plants? The website offers more than 1,000 plants and search tools that make plants easy to find. Explore lawn alternatives, butterfly-attracting plants, plants for fire safety, California natives and more.

While exploring, save plant and garden images that are appealing, then print reports about them before going shopping.

Another topic worth looking into is how to spruce up sprinkler systems to take advantage of rebates.

One of the most common causes of water waste is over-watering lawns and landscapes. It not only increases water bills, but it causes other problems such as plant disease, run-off, and over-abundant green waste from rapid plant growth.

Homes with standard automatic irrigation systems on average use twice as much water outdoors as homes that water manually, according to http://www.h2ouse.org, which offers numerous tips for water-use efficiency. The website also offers several free ideas for making manual and automatic irrigation more efficient, including:

• Never water if the soil is wet.
• Know your plants’ water needs.
• Water shady areas about a third less than sunny areas.
• Water before sunrise or after sunset.
• Don’t use sprinklers when it’s windy.

Additional water conservation resources are at WaterSmartSD.org, along with rebate information for rotating sprinkler nozzles, weather-based irrigation controllers and soil moisture sensor systems.

To have an existing irrigation system evaluated for free in the Fallbrook area, visit http://www.missionrcd.org.