Atop the American Riviera, we sat with Jules B. to inquire how he was able to cut his water bill in half and still maintain a beautiful garden.

Jules and his wife pulled up stakes from New Jersey and landed in Santa Barbara years ago to enjoy their retirement. Surveying the dry surroundings, one of the first issues they had to come to terms with was the act of watering outdoor plants.

“The whole concept of watering your plants was a foreign concept given how much precipitation we had on the East Coast,” he said.

Jules started down the water wise road by realizing the impacts of his relatively wasteful watering style at the time. To address this, Jules’ first major action was to install a water conserving drip system and efficient spray nozzles throughout the property. With a rebate from the City of Santa Barbara, he also replaced his old sprinkler timer with a more advanced timer that automatically turned off at the sign of any rain and, more importantly, gave him precision control over 13 irrigation zones around the property.

Installation of this system paid dividends immediately with a 10 percent reduction of water use. Not satisfied, Jules worked closely with his gardener to monitor the water needs and health of all of his plants around the yard as a means of reducing watering as much as possible.

Another critical practice was allowing certain plant areas around his property to die back that weren’t aesthetically important or otherwise wasteful uses of water. While it took some convincing of his green thumb wife to allow this to happen, their targeted approach of covering areas with mulch instead of water intensive ground cover had immediate results.

Not content with simply focusing on water conservation in the yard, Jules and his wife committed to making sure their dishwasher and clothes washers were always full before running and taking shorter showers. These concerted efforts both inside and outside of the house allowed Jules and his wife to cut their water usage by more than 50 percent this summer.

As we ended our interview, Jules took us on a tour of his beautiful yard, pointing out his fruit trees with their deliciously ripe fruit, the plants that had been replaced and the new efficient irrigation system.

If you are interested in learning more about these stories or how you can earn rebates to install your own water wise landscape, click here or call 805.564.5460.

— Madeline Ward is the acting water conservation coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara.