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Water Woes and Your Landscape

Episode #6
Release Date: April 29, 2024

What do we do when the rain stops, the water bills rise, and those watering restrictions kick in? Join us to learn about future water options for Polk County, FL, tips for saving water outdoors, and drought tolerant plants.

Episode Transcript:

JULIE 
Water is essential, and gardeners know this. But what do we do when the rain stops, the water bills rise and those watering restrictions kick in? Don't fret. We've got the solutions you need to keep your landscape thriving, rain or shine. From local water issues in Polk County to practical tips on conserving water in your landscape. To understanding the impact of water restrictions on your plants. We've got you covered. Let's make every drop count as we explore waterways in today's episode. 

ANNE 
Welcome to Your Central Florida Yard, the podcast series where we explore how to successfully garden in the unique climate of Central Florida. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you. So grab your shovel and get ready to dig in. This podcast is brought to you by UF/IFAS Extension, Polk County. 

JULIE 
Central Florida is rapidly growing. Everywhere you look, you can see signs from new housing to longer drive times. With this growth, it is more important now than ever that we take a serious look at the issues and respond to ensure our water resources are protected and conserved, especially as gardeners. 

ANNE 
Yeah, Julie, there's just so much growth going on and just puts a lot more pressure on our precious resource of water. So we're going to provide some facts for Polk County, Florida, just to give you some background on what's going on here and why we need to think about our water resources and where we get our water. So here in Polk County, we have 554 lakes with over 700,000 residents. 

And it's the ninth most populous county in Florida. It's actually the fourth largest county in Florida. So distance wise, it takes a long time to get from one end to the other, particularly with all of our growth. It's just a large county in landmass. And the Lakeland Winter Haven metro area are in the top three fastest growing metro areas in the U.S. and so that has been in a lot of recent news.

That makes it pretty important for us here. And approximately 80 people per day move to Polk County. And so we hear lots of facts on how many people move to Florida. Usually it's in the thousands, but a lot of them are coming here to central Florida in Polk County in particular. 

The upper Florida aquifer is what supplies our water in Polk County and in other areas in Central Florida, and is really strained with all the pressure of that growth and supplying more water. So in Polk County specifically, we'll need about 21 million gallons more water per day by the year 2040. 

JULIE 
Yeah, Anne. So with such a growing need for more water, we actually have some groups that are keeping an eye on this for us. And so locally we have the Polk Regional Water Cooperative, also known as PRWC. And they're made up of local governments and water utilities. And they, along with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, also referred to as Swiftmud, they're looking at alternative water supplies for the residents of Polk County specifically. 

And so I want to take a look at two of the upcoming projects for these alternative water supplies that are happening right here in Polk County. And so the first one is actually a direct potable reuse pilot. If you're not familiar, this is actually treated wastewater treated to drinking water standards and it's sent directly back to homes and there's no environmental buffer used. So the water is treated and so the water is actually very clean, very pure. And so here in Polk County, we actually have the Cherry Hill Water Production Facility in the Northwest Regional Utility Service Area. That's a direct potable reuse pilot site here in Polk County. Now I want to mention that this water is not currently in the public drinking water supply. This pilot actually started in August of 2023, and it's projected to go for one year. 

The other alternative water supply going on here in Polk County is the lower Floridan aquifer exploration. So Anne, you mentioned the upper Floridan aquifers where Polk County and many other parts of Central Florida get our water. But now they're looking at the lower Floridan aquifer. They've used a well to actually drill to get to that water. But it turns out that lower Floridan aquifer, the water is actually brackish. So it contains nutrients like salt. And so that water has to be treated with reverse osmosis, also known as desalination, to make that able to be used as drinking water. And so that site is in the Crooked Lake well, in southeast Polk County. Now it is anticipated that that water will actually start being delivered to residents in 2027. So those are two of our alternative water supplies to help alleviate some of the pressure on our natural water resources here in Polk County. 

ANNE
Those are really cool new ideas and things that the utilities are working on, but I bet they're really expensive. And we can share some information that is much less expensive in ways to conserve. And really, that conservation of water is really what people should be looking to first, because again, it's not a million dollar project to do some conservation in home landscapes and around your house. 

So with all that information, it's really clear to see that Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles are something that everybody should be following when doing landscaping outdoors. It just makes a lot of sense. And so these aren't extreme things that you're doing. They're just ways to design, install and maintain a landscape that is water efficient but also really beautiful, easier to maintain, ideally cheaper, water prices end up going higher. 

And so we're going to talk about some ways to save water outdoors in the garden and landscape through Florida-Friendly Landscaping. So before we get started with talking about watering in the landscape, it is important to realize that all plants are going to need water. So if they need water during and after installation, we may have to put some water on them. 

And so it is really important to know what the local watering restrictions are where you live. Watering restrictions are in place so that whatever city, county, wherever you live, can actually meet the supplies that are needed for the people that live there. And the water management districts throughout the state of Florida set those restrictions for us. Depending on where you live around the state, you can first check your water management district and then look at your local water utilities that may have even more restrictive watering allowances if that's needed. 

So if you're not sure who your water utility is, you can find your water bill and look at it and it'll tell you who's supplying your water. And you can go to their website or give them a call to get more information on the watering restrictions in your area. So here in Polk County, most of the county is within the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and our watering restrictions are in place year round. 

They are typically two days a week when you're allowed to water, and they'll provide you specific times of day to water as well. Every once in a while, the water utilities will change up, though, and could decrease you to one day or no day. So it is really important to stay on top of your water utilities restrictions, and they may be telling you how to water based on your address or account number or a phone number or other things like that. 

So just, you know, be mindful of that. And there could be exceptions to so they may say, you know, one day a week watering, but you're allowed to hand water or use micro irrigation. So if you are making landscaping changes you can just look to those other ways of watering, than turning on the sprinkler system or something like that. 

So one of the most important things we can do to conserve water and also actually preserve health of plants is to group plants by their water needs. And so what that means is if we mix plants with different water needs, something's either going to get underwatered or overwatered. That definitely affects the health of the plant material, right and also ends up wasting water. An example might be if we have landscape bedding plants, ornamental plants, and they are irrigated and watered in the same irrigation zone as the lawn. And so those plants have very different water needs. The lawn is going to need a lot more water than probably whatever you have in your landscape. So we always try to get people to make sure that their sprinkler system zones are watering different types of plants. 

The lawn is a watering zone and landscape beds are in separate zones, and so making those changes and grouping plants can really help save water and preserve plant health. Another thing that we can do is choose drought tolerant plants. So these are plants that, once they're established, will be able to survive on rainfall alone. So again, these might be some plants that need a little bit of additional water during establishment, maybe by hand watering or micro irrigation. But then after that establishment period they will be fine on their own. And there's a lot of different plants from ground covers all the way up to trees that we can look to to start to supplement our landscape. So some of our ground covers that we might want to select for drought tolerance would be plants like beach sunflower, perennial peanut.  They make great ground covers in our sunny areas. Twinflower is a great native plant with little purple flowers, very low growing, attracts butterflies. Creeping sage and sunshine mimosa are other ones that do really well as almost like a turf grass alternative. So think about areas that you are maybe having trouble keeping plants alive, or plants that you feel like are using a lot of water and replace those with some of our drought tolerant ground covers. 

Some of the perennials that do really well are aloe. Coontie cycads are great versatile plants for sun or shade, very drought tolerant. Rosemary is a fun one because that's actually an edible plant. So kind of get a two for one there with that one, a real drought tolerant plant that you can actually eat. So that's that's a great advantage there. And then black-eyed Susan and blanket flower, some really nice native wildflowers that are drought tolerant and provide us some some nice flowers. 

JULIE 
Yeah, Anne. And to add on to some of those drought tolerant plants, there are shrubs that we can include in the landscape as well. Walter s viburnum is a native shrub, and there are large specimens that get anywhere from 6 to 8ft tall and even dwarf cultivars as well. And then they have beautiful flowers in the winter, but they re evergreen. Texas sage is a Florida-Friendly plant. It's also known as barometer plant. And so right before it rains, the flowers start to to open and form. Beautyberry s a Florida native, very drought tolerant. You have those pink flowers in the summer, and then there are purple berries that they're known for in the fall. It is a deciduous plant, so it loses its leaves in the winter but comes back every year. 

Firebush is another native Florida shrub that you can include. It's evergreen. It can be damaged by semi cold weather, but it grows back very rapidly. A great pollinator plant as well for bees, butterflies and even hummingbirds. Chaste tree is another Florida-Friendly small tree, large shrub that you might consider that is also deciduous. And then in the spring and summer it has these beautiful purple flowers. 

Simpson s stopper is another Florida native shrub that's evergreen, does produce a white flower and then a red berry that's great for wildlife. And even rusty Lyonia is a Florida native shrub, very drought tolerant, evergreen. It's known for new leaves that have kind of this rust color. 

And sometimes I think we forget that even palms can be drought tolerant. So just a few examples of palms that you might include in your landscape if you're looking for drought tolerant plants. Saw palmetto, that kind of shrublike palm, grows low and along the ground. Cabbage palm, our state tree, is another drought tolerant palm. Jelly palm, also known as pindo palm, is another type of palm.

It has those featherlike leaves that have kind of that bluish green tint to them. And then even European fan palm is another type of palm that you can include if you're looking for drought tolerant plants. So remember these drought tolerant plants, you can, you know, start small or slowly. Just start adding these areas especially like Anne said if you have some areas where plants are struggling, you don't have access to irrigation. You need to, you know, reduce your irrigation. These are good plants to try.

ANNE 
And Julie can I mention too, that a lot of the demonstration gardens that are around the state at the extension offices have a lot of these plants for you to go look at if you're not really familiar with some of the plants that we recommend. Always try to find your closest Florida-Friendly landscaping demonstration garden to take a look and visit and just see what they look like growing. And sometimes there's also some really good ideas for combining the the plant that you might be interested in with other plants as well that you might not have thought about. 

JULIE 
Thank you Anne for pointing out our Florida-Friendly demonstration gardens. So another water saving tip would be to adjust your irrigation seasonally. You know, here in Florida we have our summer rainy season. And so we usually get sufficient rain that we can essentially turn our irrigation off if we're receiving sufficient rainfall. But even when we think about the winter season here in Florida, specifically Central Florida, while it's still a mild winter, our plant growth does slow down. And so our plants don't need as much water. And so often we recommend in the winter time, you know, to skip a week. Water every other week or every 14 days to save water, because again, those plants don't need that excessive irrigation during that time, if they need irrigation at all. 

And don't forget to check your time clock as well for your irrigation system. Remember, as the time changes, you also need to adjust your irrigation system if it doesn't automatically update. And these seasonal changes are a good time to just check that time clock, you know, see what it's set at. How many days a week are you watering? How long are you watering for? You know and if you have professional landscape company or irrigation company that helps you maintain your landscape and they help adjust that. Maybe just check with them if you don't understand how to adjust your time clock just to see what it's set at. 

And additionally, if you have a really high water bill, you might want to check your irrigation time clock. Often one of the main issues is that people set their time clocks to run more than is necessary. They might have it set to run multiple times per day, and don't even realize just because those irrigation clocks can have several programs. And so if you set it to run on the different programs, you might be watering multiple times on the days you're allowed to water and so that can be wasting water and obviously increasing your water bill. 

And so with a seasonal adjustment, don't forget that here in the state of Florida, you're required to have an automatic rain shut off device. And so that could be a rain sensor. And so that rain sensor is attached to the irrigation system. And it collects rainwater and when it receives a sufficient amount it tells the time clock not to turn on. 

You could also have a soil moisture sensor. And so that's buried in the hottest, driest part of the landscape. And it works similarly in that it monitors soil moisture. So if there's sufficient moisture it tells the system not to turn on. I also want to mention thinking about irrigation and time clocks, don't forget about smart irrigation controllers. These newer technologies often use some type of weather data, whether it's historical weather data or actual local weather data to help save water.  And so depending on what the season might hold for rain or what the actual rain prediction is, these smart irrigation controllers can actually help save water by not allowing the system to turn on during seasons where we have sufficient rainfall. 

Another tip for saving water outdoors in your garden is simply to use a rain barrel, and so rain barrels help capture rainwater that we can then use in the landscape where our needs are. And so some people say, well, you get all of that water in the summer when I don't need that excess water. But the point is that you're capturing that when the rainfall is sufficient, and then during those drier seasons, you can then use that rainwater on your landscape plants. And rain barrels can be connected to a gutter downspout system or if you don't have that, you can even find a valley in your roof and just put the rain barrel under that. Be sure to put some type of screening or cover on top, just to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, but also anything else from getting into that rain barrel. 

ANNE
Yeah Julie, let me mention too about rain barrels is the water is really great for watering houseplants, potted plants on patios that might not be getting rainwater. And actually over the last couple of years, I feel like the rainfall hasn't been as reliable and we may have multiple days or weeks that go by where we're not getting daily rainfall. And if you have plants that need a little bit more water, it's great to have that extra rain barrel water there to use during those periods of time also. 

Also, Julie, when we talk about rain barrels, I would like to mention microirrigation, which you actually could get pretty creative with alongside a rain barrel using things like small pumps and things you can connect microirrigation systems to rain barrels, and it's pretty cool to see what people have done with that. But microirrigation is a low volume way to water plants, in landscape beds, potted plants, that sort of thing. It's not actually included in most watering restrictions, so that means you can actually use it when it's needed. That doesn't mean you can use it every day or should use it every day. 

It is really important to only water when our plants actually need that water. But with microirrigation you can be creative. Use less water, it's a little less noticeable in the landscape. So you do have to be really mindful of maintaining that irrigation. But it's so easy to install in plant beds. And I also find it's really nice to convert pop up sprayers to microirrigation heads that maybe your needs have changed over time in the plant beds, and you don't need the same sort of pattern that you used to, and making those small changes without having to do a lot of digging is really, really helpful and actually pretty cost efficient as well. 

Another thing that actually helps with water conservation is mulching. It seems like a strange thing to think about. The way that we use mulch can actually help retain soil moisture. And so that's one of the great benefits of mulch. In addition to the way that it can help reduce weeds and prevent erosion. We have a lot of great information on proper mulching practices, different types of mulch that you could use in your landscape. It's even fun to combine different types of mulch as well, so mulching really goes a long way in the landscape if it is done properly and can help conserve our water. 

JULIE 
Yeah, Anne and to finish out our tips on saving water outdoors in the landscape, don't forget to calibrate your irrigation system. You know this is a simple task. It's an easy way to find out how much water your irrigation system is actually putting out. And then obviously, also, once you know how much it's putting out, you can easily adjust it. So depending on your plant needs, you can adjust that system to run longer or shorter to meet the needs of those plants. And I do want to mention in a previous episode on When Grass Won t Grow, we did talk a little bit more about calibrating your irrigation system as well, as one of the reasons, potentially why you might be having issues with landscape plants. 

But of course, to save water and make sure that you're not overwatering, calibrating that system by putting out containers in one zone at a time, turning that system on for 10 or 15 minutes, and then measuring the amount of water in each of those containers can help you easily figure out how much water is actually being put out. And then also if you have even coverage as well. 

ANNE 
Yeah, Julie, I wanted to mention to that calibration and measuring, I mean, it just makes it a lot easier to understand your irrigation system if you look at it in terms of application of water in inches. I think when we're talking gallons per minute now that can get really confusing. But if you know that your system puts out a half an inch of water when it runs and that's how much it needs, it's pretty straightforward. And taking that time to calibrate your irrigation system is really worthwhile. 

JULIE 
So I hope you're able to use one or more of these simple tips outdoors to help save water. So now for this episode s gardening checklist. Take some time to consider your role in helping conserve and protect our water resources here in Florida. You know, as gardeners, of course, we love plants and we enjoy creating beautiful outdoor spaces. But let's consider ways that we can actually save water in our own landscape. 

So remember to adjust your irrigation seasonally. Choose those drought tolerant plants when applicable, and use less water by installing a rain barrel, maybe including mulch in your landscape beds, and also using microirrigation for newly installed plants or even other plants in our landscape that might need a little bit of supplemental irrigation. 

ANNE 
For more information on water conservation, watering restrictions, and Florida-Friendly Landscaping, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension service. Many have plant clinics that can further assist you. All resources for this episode are listed in the show notes. 

JULIE 
Thanks for listening to Your Central Florida Yard. We hope this episode has provided you with valuable insights and tips for your gardening journey in this unique part of the state. Your Central Florida Yard is produced by Anne Yasalonis and Julie Schelb. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, find our contact information in the show notes. 

This podcast is brought to you by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension, an equal opportunity institution. Thank you for listening and as always, happy gardening. 

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Transcribed by: J. Bayer-Fermier - 10/24/24 

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