Blog

As landscape professionals, we love our jobs and being outside makes us happy, but there is something that really rubs us the wrong way; wasting water. REALLY?!* This is the 21st Century; we have tons of tools at our disposal to help save water. There are many ways to waste water, including runoff, misting, and leaking, but let’s focus on the WORST* offence; unnecessary watering or over-watering.

At this very moment, while we write this blog (2/28/14), it is pouring rain outside. The State of California has been in a drought for the past three years and this is the largest storm in that time. However, on our way into the office this morning we witnessed homes and businesses running their sprinklers. REALLY?!* In our minds, we asked ourselves, ‘How could this be?! It’s already rained 3 inches in less than 12 hours??? These landscapes are getting free water from the sky, yet these property owners are paying for and wasting water just because someone forgot to flip the irrigation controller switch to the OFF position!”* It’s so easy to prevent this from happening, without even having to lift a finger or give a second thought, but many people just don’t realize it. It’s a simple fix that will let you be as carefree as you’d like and not have to do a thing; it’s called a Weather-Based Irrigation Controller.

Yes, mad-scientists have finally come up with a solution! Well, not really, we’re joking, but we’re also dead serious. Such a device exists, and it will make sure you never over-water your landscape again; rain or shine.

All you have to do is have us come out and install it. It’s that easy. If you have an old controller already, we’ll just remove it and replace it with a shiny new one and install a tiny weather sensor on the side of your house. If you don’t have a controller already, there may be a little more work involved, such as installing an electrical outlet and/or wiring to your irrigation valves, but we’d have to visit your property to determine exactly what extra work would need to be done before we can install this spectacular device.

Basically this modern marvel uses a weather sensor to detect rain, as well as determine real-time temperatures and evaporation rates in order to adjust your irrigation watering times accordingly. If it’s REALLY* freaking hot outside it will add extra water to your landscape. If it’s a cool day it will water less. And if it’s raining it will turn off your irrigation completely for 24 hours. REALLY!* It’s seriously that awesome. Maybe not as amazing as bacon, but pretty close. Oh, and you can even control it with your iPhone!