An automated irrigation system waters your yard without you having to think about it – and that’s the problem. If you set the system and then forget it, this convenient device can...
Fix a Leak Week is a funny name for a week with a serious message. U.S. homes waste a startling amount of drinking water. The average household’s leaks can account for more than 10,000...
Investing in a tree adds shade to your yard, value to your home and is a gift to your city. The Cool Urban Space Project by the City of Phoenix, University of Arizona and Arizona State University...
On March 3 about 1,000 people will pick up a new weather-based smart irrigation controller for their home at a fraction of the retail cost. These WaterSense labeled controllers come with...
Container gardens of cactus and succulents can add color and dimension to a yard, drama to a small patio, and life to an apartment balcony. They also can be frustrating and leave you with dead and...
Lisa Osborne and her husband bought their City of Avondale home in 2008. They planted two citrus trees in the backyard that sat in a field of gravel for years and proceeded to turn brown. Until...
More than half the drinking water used in the Phoenix Metro area is used outdoors, mostly to irrigate landscapes. Desert dwellers irrigate a variety of plants, trees and grass all year long as the...
AMWUA cities offer more than 70 free landscape classes throughout the year to help you grow a more beautiful yard with less water. Local experts introduce you to a wide variety of desert plants and...
We're approaching peak demand season for city water departments, which means peak water bills for residents and businesses. The demand for water is at its highest in June or July when landscape...
Some professional landscapers suggest homeowners design sections of their landscape as they would design each room in their home. This image helps homeowners give their yards dimension with layers...
Water leaks inside and outside the average American home waste up to 10,000 gallons of water a year. This drain on the country's drinking water supply is so critical that the U.S. Environmental...
The Sonoran Desert is an incomparable place to hike, bike, run, horseback ride and bird watch. When it comes to foraging for food, it's not so grand. Even those knowledgeable and enthusiastic...
Water is life and nowhere is that more apparent than in the desert. Fountains and pools of water were built into ancient cities, including desert cities, for both practical and aesthetic reasons....
Here's one of the easiest ways you can save money and water: learn how to manage your irrigation controller. AMWUA cities' conservation professionals continue to report that many...
Monsoon storms brought temperatures down and brought more desert dwellers out to their patios. It's the time of year when homeowners begin to reimagine their yards: a new tree here, some...
In writing about the monsoon season, I'm hoping we do not jinx having more storms. The monsoon season in the Valley is a great time of year for suddenly cooler temperatures and extraordinary...
In a 3.2-acre space hemmed in by traffic noise, office buildings and warehouse construction sits a living classroom. The University of Arizona's Maricopa County Cooperative Extension is a place...
People like the idea of reusing laundry water to irrigate their yards. It's called a laundry-to-landscape graywater system. Installing a graywater system is part of a growing movement of...
If you're working to make your landscape more water efficient, don't forget to add one of many drought-tolerant trees that thrive in the Metro Phoenix area. Trees can raise property value,...
Succulents can steal the show in a drought-tolerant landscape. Their structural and exotic shapes add whimsy and originality to a desert yard. With a little knowledge, succulents are as easy to...
Cities need trees, including our desert cities. Trees help to mitigate the heat island, reduce ground temperatures in the evening and remove pollutants from the air. Trees raise property values,...
So you've selected desert-adapted plants and trees and installed a beautiful water-saving landscape. The key to maintaining your landscape's health, beauty, and longevity is watering...
Remember the first time you saw Phoenix? If you weren't born here, you most likely flew in and then drove down a freeway. The desert landscaping that lines our freeways is one of those cultural...
If you want to find out how to save water and keep a little grass in the back yard, how about asking a city with more than 400 acres of Bermuda to care for? The City of Scottsdale maintains 42...
Are you paying more for your water than your neighbor? It's a real possibility. All 10 AMWUA member cities have tiered residential water rates. That means the more water you use, the more...
AMWUA member cities are focused on keeping water flowing in and out of your homes and businesses day in and day out. At AMWUA, we're all about solutions. Always have been. It's our job....
Do you remember the old low-flow shower heads? Some of them were awful, weren't they? Those old shower heads began to give water-efficient fixtures an image problem that was hard to shake....
Etched on the wall at the entrance of the City of Scottsdale's Xeriscape Garden is this: "Demonstrating the Beauty of Saving Water." That is a lovely explanation of why some cities...
Tired of winter guests? How about inviting some colorful visitors to your backyard who can entertain you instead. It could be time to turn that bit of grass and gravel, with its smattering of...
Cities in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area are willing to give you money and free experts to make water-saving changes in your home or business. But each city creates a different package of...
Each year an average family in the City of Tempe uses about 30,000 gallons of drinking water to wash clothes. Tempe is the first city in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area to help homeowners pay...
When it comes to protecting plants from cold weather, there are two types of desert homeowners: conscientious and casual. The conscientious have a plan. They are prepared with large...
In the last 22 months, the Phoenix Zoo reduced its water use by 20 percent. That saved the zoo $80,000 on its water bill over the past two years and conserved 19,500 million gallons of drinking...
You pay a landscaping company to save you the time and energy it takes to maintain a lovely green space. Twenty years ago, Arizona recognized that landscapers could do more. They could help their...
The Town of Gilbert helps homeowners associations take the guesswork out of irrigation costs. The town's voluntary program keeps landscapes looking lovely, saves money and water, and maintains...
The wrong tree in a desert yard can get ugly fast. Then, too, if the right tree is not correctly planted, nurtured or maintained it can die, grow in tortured directions, or fall over in a hard...
Desert shrubs do not thrive when homeowners and landscapers shear them into geometric shapes, such as balls, squares or inverted pyramids. Regular shearing weakens these shrubs, detracts from their...
Valley homeowners use as much as 70 percent of their water outside, particularly during the summer months. Here's the frustrating part: many homeowners can grow the same lovely outdoor spaces...
So you sit on your back porch during a good monsoon storm and watch sheets of rain fall off the edge of the roof. Where you see rain, there is a small group of people who see your watershed. These...
A recent article in "Environmental Leader" magazine cited a study that called water conservation "low-hanging fruit" often ignored by property managers looking to save money....
MYTH 1: A desert garden means replacing grass with ugly gravel. Plants, not gravel, dominate the loveliest desert gardens. Gravel is a low-maintenance ground cover, or rock mulch, that reduces...