Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

A few conservation methods can go a long way. Gretchen Mahan tells us more.

It doesn’t take much to conserve water. My family and I conserved about 3,000 gallons this summer by changing a few habits. Right after we began the project, the city implemented water restrictions. So we followed the rules and only watered by sprinklers once a week in the early morning.

In Texas, watering the lawn can account for 50 percent of residential water use in the summer. So to make sure our sprinkler system was efficient, my dad and I hammered rocks behind them so they would shoot closer to the ground to prevent unnecessary evaporation.

Yeah, that’s pretty low to the ground.

My mom, René, tends to beautiful gardens, but, unfortunately, gardens require water. And she says since we’ve been in a drought, the plants aren’t looking their best.

Most of them are real yellow and dry. I got several that are just absolutely crying. They’re just laying on the ground begging me to come water them.

Fortunately, none of our plants died, but we might need look into replacing some of our gardens with more native plants that use less water. The 3,000 gallons we saved was 13 percent of our total water use. If every Texan saved that much, we could put a major dent in the amount of water we use.

Thanks Gretchen. That’s our show…Find more information about water conservation at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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