Grouping plant materials with similar requirements can reduce the use of water resources. Upgrading from a traditional spray-type sprinkler system to drip irrigation eliminates ineffi cient water usage, over spraying and runoff. Credit: ValleyCrest Landscape Companies © Jay Graham, Graham Photography
Many property and facility managers realize that landscapes need to be renovated or refreshed every few years. There are now additional reasons to do this. Water is a valuable resource and water for irrigating plants is becoming more expensive. The amount of water that can be used for landscape irrigation is increasingly limited by various agency restrictions.
With this in mind, forward thinking companies are making commitments to sustainable landscaping now as a way to avoid costly redesigns in the future, maximize the average time people spend on the property, and improve the return on landscape dollars invested. ValleyCrest and other landscape companies have retrofitted many landscapes and documented considerable cost savings. In addition, the right landscape can increase the value of a property.
2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, Calif. is a property that has successfully incorporated sustainable landscaping and efficient irrigation to conserve water and yet maintain appealing garden settings for workers. Credit: Goran Kosanovic, SWA Group
While these forward thinking companies recognize that any landscapes present opportunities to improve the environment, there are still complications.
“Although runoff water is very often filtered and treated, recycling runoff water still poses some pollution risk,” said Dan Hutchins, president of DiHydro.
For example, runoff water entering various aquatic ecosystems can be a threat to these ecosystems. Water entering storm drains around retail establishments can pick up many potential pollutants including fluids leaking from cars, dust from air pollution particulates, dog waste and organic debris such as leaves. Unfortunately, some people still use storm drains as a convenient place to dump all kinds of waste, adding to potential pollution and safety issue from runoff water. Many agencies now ban water from irrigation or even rain from flowing directly into storm drains.
Efficient irrigation systems
One answer is to the challenge of pollutants in the runoff water is to save water by using more efficient irrigation systems for landscapes. The two most efficient irrigation systems for most areas on large commercial landscapes are gear-driven stream-rotor heads and inline drip with integral molded emitters. Ideally, there should be no spaghetti tubing on large commercial landscapes. Spaghetti tubing systems have a high failure rate. Spray heads are appropriate for shrub beds since shrubs tolerate uneven water application.
A certified irrigation specialist can analyze which areas of a landscape use the most water and create a customized plan that achieves the highest level of water conservation. Photo courtesy of ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, © Jay Graham, Graham Photography
Bubblers are appropriate for palms and small trees. Rotors apply water very evenly and probably even more importantly they have the lowest rate of water delivery, so the water can soak in instead of running off. Unfortunately due to the physics of water droplet formation the minimum width of an irrigated area using rotors is 15 to 20 feet.
Another limitation of rotors is that water flying through the air can be blown by wind. Besides the inefficiency, and water hitting cars and windows, most agencies will not allow recycled water to be used if the water blows off the landscape onto sidewalks. For these reasons retrofitting with inline drip is a good choice for most areas on retail properties. This can be a large job, so you might want to consider other changes — such as storm water management and installation of LED lights — at the same time.
Recycled water
Recycled water is the best way to have a reliable source of irrigation water and ensure that the investment in the irrigated landscape is protected during times when potable irrigation water is restricted. The use of recycled water will increase rapidly over the coming years as municipalities install large pipes to carry recycled water from treatment plants out to users.
To help meet sustainability goals, ValleyCrest works with customers to design and convert large water features to sustainable planters. This results in significant water and energy savings. Photo Courtesy of ValleyCrest Landscape Companies
Landscape retrofit plans should always investigate whether recycled water will be available in the coming years. For example, at one property in Florida, ValleyCrest maintains a comprehensive irrigation system that uses recycled water provided by the city of Orlando and collected from the parking lot islands and the perimeter roads.
Closer to the buildings, ValleyCrest technicians use potable water. Fourteen different irrigation controllers are used to maintain 380 different zones on the property. Some zones use spray heads that water shrubs, while separate zones are set up for turf grass areas that require large rotors, small shrubs that use drip irrigation and bubblers for palms. Such differentiation saves the owners money each month.
Seasonal Color
At properties in California, Florida, Arizona, Texas and Nevada, some landscape plans call for flower beds to be replanted four or five times a year with seasonal color. Instead, ValleyCrest has converted some seasonal color beds — flowers that bloom in short cycles — to beds of color that do not need to be changed every three to four months. By converting some of the beds that are changed seasonally to flowering perennials that come back every year and thrive throughout entire growing season — owners can reduce costs without people noticing. Simply replacing flower beds less frequently can yield big dividends because changing out flowers is expensive. Someone has to grow new flowers, use water and fertilizer, transport them to the site and re-plant them. Use of seasonal color should be highly targeted because it is the most expensive landscape square footage on any site.
Turf
If you observe people in “town center” type of properties and business campuses you can clearly see that turf is desirable where people take breaks. People like to sit on turf and turf is a great surface for kids to play on. Turf “swallows up” blowing dust and debris and because the growing grass blades are continually renewed the surface feels clean to most people. In hot climates turf is cool to sit on even in the sun.
Grouping plant materials with similar requirements help reduce the use of water resources. Maintaining the natural look of plants improves sustainability, creates less plant debris, saves money on Green waste reduction, and stays true to the original landscape design intent. Photo courtesy of ValleyCrest Landscape Companies
Although turf does use more irrigation water than most plantings, turf that people don’t use can be removed and replaced with other planting that require less water. At a property in Newport Beach, Calif. some ornamental turf grass areas are being replaced with shrubs to save water and reduce maintenance costs. Eventually, more than an acre of turf that isn’t essential to the landscape — parking islands, for instance — will be eliminated in favor of less-thirsty ornamental plant material. The change will also save on fuel by minimizing the use of gas-powered lawnmowers, weed eaters and edgers. Removing turf around trees has the benefits of reduced turf as well as improving the growth of the trees. At an office building in Roseville, Calif. turf under trees was replaced with a dry creek and mulch.
Shrubs
When turf is removed, shrubs are one the best plants to use. There is a wide variety of shrubs that have diff erent leaf colors, leaf textures and flowering times. Many shrubs are drought tolerant.
By choosing the right natural materials from flowering seasonal plants, trees and shrubs and using an ecologically friendly irrigation systems, you can save money on both maintenance costs and water bills not to mention the positive impact sustainable landscaping has on the environment. FEJ
