Irving, College Station, Bryan now in Water My Yard program

Website can help homeowners cut landscape water use by half or more

Dr. Guy Fipps, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service irrigation engineer, holds an Aggie Catch Can, a device is used to measure how much water a sprinkler irrigation system applies in a given amount of time. On the new Water My Yard website, http://WaterMyYard.org, homeowners have the choice of using a such a method, or simply selecting a picture of their sprinklers and entering the spacing between them. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Jose Lopez)

Writer: Robert Burns, 903-834-6191, rd-burns@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION The new Water My Yard site has been completely updated, making it even easier for homeowners to sign up, create profiles and better manage landscape irrigation, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service irrigation experts.

Automated text messaging of recommended irrigation scheduling is new to version 2, said Charles Swanson, AgriLife Extension irrigation specialist, College Station. Also, the new version allows homeowners to create multiple zones for their yard, such as a recommendation for the front yard sprinklers and the backyard sprinklers. The original version only allowed you to select one sprinkler type per sign up.

What hasnt changed is the basic principle behind Water My Yard, said Dr. Guy Fipps, AgriLife Extension irrigation engineer, College Station.

The Water My Yard project incorporates automated weather stations situated throughout the state that feed data to the Water My Yard website, http://WaterMyYard.org. The website software uses evapotranspiration rates usually termed ET to calculate weekly irrigation recommendations specific to areas within the district, Fipps said.

Evapotranspiration is a measure of how much water plants, such as turfgrass, trees and shrubs, need in order to grow and stay healthy, Fipps explained. Water requirements depend not only on the type of plant, but also on local weather conditions such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation.

All this may sound complicated, but its been made nearly a no-brainer for those who are part of a sponsored Water My Yard region, Fipps said

In 2013, the program was first piloted in cooperation with the North Texas Municipal Water District, which delivers water to 1.6 million customers in 13 cities in the Metroplex: Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Mesquite, Princeton, Plano, Richardson, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie.

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Irving, College Station, Bryan now in Water My Yard program