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It’s Springtime in Arizona! Salt River Project (SRP) is hosting a Free Water Conservation Expo at which you can learn about saving water, money and how to irrigate your lawn and landscape correctly for the upcoming warmer months.

Visit the expo and get a 4-station smart irrigation controller (expandable to 13 stations) for $50 plus tax (retail value $290). Three-station expansion modules are available for $17.55 plus tax (retail value $55). The discount is limited to the first 500 SRP water shareholders or power customers who register and attend the expo. The first 500 customers who attend a controller installation class at the expo will receive a water-saving showerhead ($39 value). Limit one controller and showerhead per household.

Date and time of expo: Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: SRP’s PERA Club, 1 E. Continental Drive, Tempe, AZ 85281
View map of PERA or get driving directions to PERA

If you plan to attend the expo or classes, please register using our online form, or call SRP at (602) 236-3333.

See you there!

SRP is one of fifteen Water – Use It Wisely regional partners, many of whom offer water-wise programs and opportunities. Check out all of the partner programs at the Water – Use It Wisely calendar on our home page.

Ah, spring in the Desert Southwest… beautiful, sunny, seventy-five degree days. It’s perfect weather for gardening, but it’s also an especially good time for some irrigation system maintenance. Irrigation problems are not always apparent between the cool nighttime temperatures, the periodic cloudy days and even the occasional sprinkle of rain. So don’t wait until the heat sets in. Check out our Irrigation Maintenance Checklist to get your system in tip-top shape just in time for summer’s sizzle.

After making any drip irrigation repairs, flush out the line for about a minute. Do this by removing the end cap at the end of the poly line. Yours might have a figure 8 end fitting that kinks the poly line - just slip it off and unkink.

Water – Use It Wisely offers all kinds of landscape advice to help you save water and money. Here’s just a sample:

• Learn how to properly water your plants to keep them healthy and beautiful in Landscape Watering by the Numbers.
• Learn how to program your irrigation controller on our Timing is Everything page.
• Find out about free booklets and guides available online or from your local water provider.
• Sign up for a monthly watering reminder email that guides you on how much and how often to water.

The City of Mesa is one of fifteen Water – Use It Wisely regional partners who offer assistance with saving water. Many even offer rebates on toilets, desert landscaping and more.

Smartscape offers green jobs training at affordable price, helps professionals stay on leading edge of landscape industry saving clients water, money, and time

In a tough economy, one way to stay ahead of the competition is to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, research, and practices in the industry for which you work. For the landscaping business, this is especially true. As the housing market remains stalled, new landscape installations and maintenance accounts are often hard to come by, and competition for customers is fierce. Therefore, programs that provide continuing education and training—especially at an affordable price—are all the more important and relevant for businesses today.

Enter Smartscape: A training program for landscape professionals
Sponsored by the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (a Water – Use It Wisely partner) and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Maricopa County, Smartscape is a green jobs training program providing 20 hours of instruction on the proper irrigation and care for water-efficient landscapes in the Sonoran Desert.

Over the eight Smartscape sessions, instructors from the University of Arizona, municipal water departments, and the landscape industry present the latest research-based information regarding sustainable landscaping practices.

“We find the Smartscape program provides the updated training our employees need to keep our customers informed, as well as keeping us leaps and bounds ahead of the competition,” states Jill Gilbert, Customer Relations Manager for AZ Royal Landscaping and Design.

Smartscape professionals promote sustainable practices
Instruction on sustainable landscaping practices can help companies cut back on clients’ water use, where up to 70% of a residential water bill is devoted to outdoor uses such as landscapes and pools. By helping reduce outdoor water consumption, Smartscape graduates help homeowners save where it counts—in their wallet.

In addition, Smartscape attendees are trained on the fundamentals of designing, installing, and maintaining low-water-use landscapes compatible with our desert environment. Using landscape plants that are adapted to the climate and soils of the Sonoran Desert can make for a lower maintenance yard, which saves clients valuable time and energy.

“Smartscape is a comprehensive program, packed with useful information, taught by an all-star team of Valley landscape professionals, in a format anyone can understand, and built around our typical work schedule,” says Bryan Wallace, Vice President of Operations at Victor’s Landscaping Inc. and a Smartscape Certified Professional.

Online directory connects graduates to customers
To help Smartscape professionals market their training, graduates have the option to be included in the Smartscape Certified Professional Online Directory, found at http://www.amwua.org/ss_directory.html. The Online Directory allows homeowners to find a Smartscape Certified Professional in their area. As more homeowners want to save money and time in their yard, businesses and individuals who market their Smartscape training have another “leg up” on the competition.

Next class starts this month
The next Smartscape course will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:30-6:00 P.M., January 23- February 15, 2012. All classes will be held at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Maricopa County, 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85040. The registration fee for the entire series is $75.00. Please contact Haley Paul at smartscape@cals.arizona.edu or (602) 827-8200 x395 if you are a landscape professional interested in taking the course or sending your employees to the course. Also visit the Smartscape website to download and print a registration flyer: http://extension.arizona.edu/maricopa/smartscape-program.

Find Smartscape on Facebookand Twitter too!

From time to time, WUIW features guest bloggers who write about water conservation and education. Haley Paul is our guest blogger this week. Smartscape is co-sponsored by AMWUA, a WUIW partner.

Water – Use It Wisely partners were pleased to see a Jan. 1, 2012 opinion piece in The Arizona Republic that included a challenge to look at our Arizona assets and figure out how to maximize them for the New Year. The list includes our “water supplies” and our “striking desert plants” amongst many of our other great Arizona resources. We couldn’t agree more! Check out our Water Saving Tip #61. Did you know that each low-water-use plant can save you up to 550 gallons a year?

Hundreds of desert plants are available for just about any function in your landscape. Would you like to attract birds or butterflies to your yard? Desert plants are up for the challenge! Perhaps you are looking for year-round color, or how about a living fence or a cool, shady retreat? And desert plants not only save water, a precious Arizona resource, they have special characteristics that help them thrive in our tough desert conditions including heat, alkaline soils and even winter frost.

The Water – Use It Wisely site is filled with plant details including plant selection ideas, plant care and watering details. And if you have a water-thirsty landscape, we’ll tell you how to remove grass and install a water-saving, colorful, thriving Xeriscape instead. After all, there are a number of ways to save water and they all start with you. Water. Use It Wisely.

Here’s a great water saving tip: adjust your irrigation timer when the seasons change. Connie Speelman, from the Town of Queen Creek, one of our Arizona Regional Campaign Partners, explains to us that with cooler weather and lower evaporation rates, dialing your timer back is a good idea.

For more information, watch her interview on “Your Life A to Z” on local Channel 3:

What is container gardening? Raymond Rees, from the Town of Fountain Hills, otherwise known as one of our Arizona Regional Campaign Partners, tells us about how containers that we have lying around the house can be used to house plants that will accent your home, yard, balcony or anywhere you’d like to add a little pizzazz with plants.

Here is his interview on “Your Life A to Z” on local Channel 3 where you can learn more:

Stay tuned for the next segment of Water – Use It Wisely on TV!

Join us for another interview on “Your Life A to Z” on Arizona’s local Channel 3 to learn more about the Paradise Valley Xeriscape Demonstration Garden. Jake Lenderking and Sally Ceccerelli-Wolf from our Regional Partner, Arizona American Water, tell us about how a demonstration garden can help someone who is planting in their yard choose low water-use plants to beautify their landscaping. The demonstration garden has all sorts of different native plants that will grow and blossom with the seasons, and people can come take a look and get an idea of what their yard will look like if they chose a specific plant.

Furthermore, since up to 70% of your water use is outdoors, choosing a xeriscape landscape for your yard can help you conserve water and save on your utility bills.

Watch the interview on “Your Life A to Z” on local Channel 3 here:

The fall planting season has arrived! Temperatures are cooler, and it’s a great time to renovate your landscape or replace plants you may have lost during the hot, dry summer.

Desert Willow Trees are native to the Sonoran Desert.

There are hundreds of beautiful desert plants to choose from but one of the biggest challenges of purchasing desert plants (especially since many are Sonoran Desert natives) is that some don’t look great in the pot at the nursery. You really have to have faith and know that the wispy stems in the container will be like the ‘ugly duckling that turns into a swan’ once planted in your landscape.

That’s why we suggest visiting a Xeriscape Demonstration Garden for plant selection ideas. It’s amazing how different plants look when they’re established in the landscape. Best of all, demonstration gardens give you a good idea of how large a plant can get so that you’re sure to put the right plant in the right place. You’ll also find design ideas and great examples of plant combinations.

Brand new xeriscape demonstration garden in Paradise Valley

One of our Water – Use It Wisely Partners, Arizona American Water, is pleased to showcase a new Xeriscape Demonstration Garden in Paradise Valley located at 6229 N. Mockingbird Lane. The Company planned the garden with neighbors, town council members, and Master Gardeners and turned an unused site into a fabulous demonstration for low-water use plants, Xeriscape principals and how to save water and money.

Arizona American Water is one of fifteen Water – Use It Wisely regional partners and many of them sponsor beautiful demonstration gardens. Get inspired. Find a Xeriscape Demonstration Garden near you!

Did you know that up to 70% of your water use is outdoors?

Water – Use It Wisely is being featured on Arizona’s local Channel 3′s Your Life A to Z with some easy and practical ways to save water. Arizona Regional Campaign Water Partner, the City of Mesa, sent their Conservation Specialist, Donna DiFrancesco, to be interviewed by Lisa Haffner on this special segment on outdoor water use.

Check out the video on our YouTube Channel here:

For more information about landscape care and to see our landscape guides, please click here.

Next week’s segment: Take The Home Water Challenge and Find Those Sneaky Leaks. Stay tuned!

This Fall, Water – Use It Wisely is being featured on Arizona’s local Channel 3′s Your Life A to Z with some easy and practical ways to save water. Last Wednesday (09/28) our Arizona Regional Campaign Water Partner, the City of Scottsdale, sent their Water Conservation Specialist, Elisa Klein, to be interviewed by Lisa Haffner. They discussed the water and cost saving advantages of not overseeding your lawn in preparation for the cooler months.

Check out the video on our YouTube Channel here:

For more information about overseeding, read our blog post on the topic here.

Next week’s segment: Reduce Your Outdoor Water Use. Stay tuned!