Does your Long Beach Rental Have Water Wise Landscaping Features?
Water Wise Features For Your Rental
When managing your property have you considered water wise landscaping features?
Conserving water has quickly become a necessary feature when
renting a Long Beach property. Many tenants who have to pay for their water utilities would rather save their money with water wise landscaping features. While landlords that include the price of water utility in the rent would be smart to keep landscaping features drought resistant and water wise.
What are water wise landscaping features and why would you want to have them on your Long Beach rental? Below are a few landscaping features that can save you money and keep the curb appeal of your Long Beach rental high.
Water Conservation is Everyone’s Responsibility
People should understand that water conservation is everyone’s responsibility. As the challenges of this California drought rapidly increases, it will eventually result in increased prices. The solution is to conserve water by making your home more water-efficient.
As a property owner, it's your responsibility to make sure water lines, irrigation and plumbing is well maintained and not leaking. But it goes farther than this, automation of sprinkler systems and proper lawn care can conserve water, keep tenants happy while keeping your curb appeal intact.
Drought Resistant Lawn
Drought resistant grass lawns may be one of the best ways to keep a beautiful lawn while saving water. While there are some types of lawns that can be green year round with proper watering, this can be difficult to keep up when only allowed to water your lawn according to Long Beach water restrictions.
Drought resistant grass can thrive during periods of limited watering. Though a concern for some is that most drought resistant grass like buffalo and bermuda grass has a dormancy period in which the grass will turn brown for a season.
Although this may seem like your lawn is dying you can retain the bright lush green by simply applying grass paint during this period. It does sound odd to paint your grass when it's brown but it's far more common than you may think. When drought resistant grass goes dormant it doesn't need much water, so by painting the dry grass you can keep the curb appeal of a green lawn and save water. Lawn paint only lasts 2 to 3 months, by the time it begins to wash away your grass should be growing again.
Drip Irrigation and a Smart Controller
You may be wondering what a drip irrigation system is. Essentially its a low pressure, low volume lawn and garden watering system. It delivers water to your home’s landscapes through a small steam, spray or drip. This type of system uses less water than other irrigation systems while keeping roots moist but not soggy. With minimal evaporation and overwatering a drip irrigation can lower use of water while keeping plants thriving.
A drip irrigation system can solve some problems you can't with a traditional sprinkler system. The gentle and precise nature of drip irrigation will prevent over watering which can cause run off watering that can cause erosion. The water supply lines connect directly to a hose spigot making it unnecessary to cut into the home’s water lines.The flexibility of the water lines means you can adjust what locations get the appropriate watering as the plants grow and spread throughout the landscape. You can also get smart controllers like the
Rachio R3 to adjust watering depending on the weather. Although drip irrigation uses less water than a traditional sprinkler system, you are still going to deal with local restrictions based on your property’s location.
Mulch
If you’re not familiar with mulch, it comes in a few varieties but most commonly its wood chips spread across gardens or other landscape features. Mulch is versatile in landscaping, it improves soil quality, allows better water movement, it keeps soil cool during summer, and it mitigates water evaporation.
Added bonuses include using it to hide drip irrigation systems, wires used for landscaping lights which can give your property a clean, natural look.
Sprinkler Maintenance
Sprinklers, being a “set it and forget it” system many homeowners and tenants truly forget to adjust and maintain the sprinkler system. Forgetting to adjust sprinklers after a rainfall can lead to overwatering your lawn which is not only unnecessary it leads to waste of water.
Over time, much like everything in a home, sprinkler systems will need maintenance and repairs. Sprinkler heads can become misdirected and begin to spray walkways or driveways instead of the landscape. Depending on water quality the sprinkler head can also become partially clogged which can lead to pooling of water near the sprinkler head and dry spots throughout the lawn.
You can participate in Long Beach’s
Lawn-to-Garden program which can provide benefits for the environment and attract environmentally conscious tenants. All Lawn-to-Garden projects are eligible to receive an incentive of up to $3.00 per square foot of lawn removed in the front yard or $2.00 per square foot in the backyard. Replacing water thirsty lawns for native, drought resistant gardens. If you need help understanding water wise landscaping features, or need help understanding Long Beach’s Lawn-to-Garden program feel free to call us at (562) 888-0247 or feel free to fill out our
free rental analysis to see what your rental could yield today.
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