Put Green In Your Grass and Your Wallet By Getting Smart

It’s getting to the time of year when you have to get serious about watering your plants and grass if you want to keep them. Because of the wet winter, government officials don’t want us to lose sight of conserving water in this desert climate. 

The Washington County Conservancy District has information on their website about how long to water sprinklers and drip systems based on the temperature. They also detail the best practices for irrigation. 

I purchased a smart sprinkler timer last year and I have been pleased with the results. There are many versions of these timers. Mine is a b-hyve from Orbit that I selected mainly because it was on sale for $69 at the time, and I’m cheap. 

I was surprised to discover when I installed it, that it has no digital display. The way to set watering times is on an app on my phone. There was also a way to do it on the computer. At first this concerned me, but I soon came to appreciate being able to manipulate it on the app. I can start the sprinklers from anywhere, even standing over it to see if it is broken.

I found the timer easy to use and it gave me so many more options for watering. I have a spot on my lawn that slopes, and the water runs off onto the sidewalk after 3 minutes running. With this new timer, I can set far more watering times staggered at 3 minutes each, and keeps the water from flowing away down the gutter. 

It hooks up to my Wi-Fi and there is a smart watering feature that monitors weather conditions. Even if I don’t have it on the smart feature, it will still hold off if it sees rain in the forecast. This is pretty cool, but I do have to keep an eye on it. Some weeks there will be rain predicted every day but it only ends up sprinkling in the hills around and not where my house is. Too long and the grass starts looking pretty dry. You can always override the rain delay and water manually. 

Here’s the best thing about my smart timer. There was a rebate available from the Division of Water Resources and it ended up being free. Like I said, I’m cheap. The rebate program is still available but has changed as the price has come down for these smart timers.