30 days record over 100F Aggieland topic = sprinklers
I hate dragging hoses
I hate wasting drinking water on auto-irrigation for grass to mow Impressions
Ergo, need to share some cheap, ideal sprinklers ... a rare event in escalating inflation and COVID-struck incomes

Old school but also works ala a drip irrigation station
http://rb.gy/edd0f

Small drip-esque to large volume need areas
http://rb.gy/xo1vk


Anyone have a better guess to 1/2hr = 1-inch rate?

I apologize for hijacking your thread, but I share your dislike of paying for water for the lawn. Most municipalities are busy jacking up water rates as well. I wonder if there's a better approach

I'm looking for ideas for xeriscaping, i.e., making your yard such that it does not need watering but matches the local environment. The approach in Arizona to simply gravel your yard would look horrible in most places in Texas, so that doesn't seem to be a good idea. Also, some local hippies just let their yards go natural, and that tends to look trashy. Are there any other ideas or approaches that would eliminate or drastically reduce the need for watering but would look decent?

You won't be able to guess this. You can calculate with a flow meter. Perhaps you could use your water meter and a timer. Then use the fact that there are .62 gallons in 1" of water in 1 square foot of area and figure the math in your yard area which isn't square but a circle…..

Or

Sticks rain gauge in the yard for 1 hour and measure it directly. You can do that say, 5 times in different places under the water arc and then average. That's what I'd do. I prefer direct measurement to indirect calculation.

Or

To heck with all that and water for 30 minutes with that thing once a week and see if the plants survive. If they do, set it back to 20 minutes and so on.

Either way, deep, long watering once a week is better than shallow frequent watering even if the plants are sad looking.

Or

What my grandma did….stick you finger in the dirt down to your knuckle and see if it's damp or not. She was a no nonsense gal.


As for xeriscaping, I don't think you are going to find a good solution. It's like finding plants to survive the snowpocalypse. The drought is common but not normal. Look at your local pastures, weeds are dead. For me, I adopt the hippie approach. I don't water anything. My big oak trees have roots deep and will be fine. Cactus is even yellowing and grass is dead and yard is dead. Yes, it's not great looking but I want to save my water for drinking and keeping animals happy. My 1 acre garden is on a drip system and only surviving crops' zones are on every other day to keep them alive until temps come down. To heck with my yard. Lol.

Unfortunately, rocks and gravel are the only truly drought resistant product for your yard outside of astrourf, which by the way I've seen in some peoples back yards that look
Amazing.

I got some really good answers to this question, so here's the source and someone better versed into how to do & what options are out there. Question best posed if prefaced with photos to his email.

https://kamu.tamu.edu/radio/radio-programs/garden-success/

I am still struggling with my ... mess .... and having a black thumb, poor soils, shade from dying trees and a desire to conserve drinking water are not good partners.

Agreed! Am in step with all of this, well said.