Three years ago, Chris, a Marin Water customer from Tiburon, pulled up the turf lawn in his front yard. The water- and money-saving move came before the recent drought, and significantly reduced his home’s outdoor watering needs. So it wasn’t immediately clear when Chris took another hard look at his outdoor water use in the middle of 2023 that he’d find much savings. 

He started by referencing Marin Water’s Weekly Watering Schedule online, which prompted him to cut back on outdoor irrigation that had previously been based on advice from various landscapers over the years. That sparked more investigation. 

“Then I went around the entire yard; I must have found at least a dozen emitters that were popped up, leaking pipes – there was a tremendous amount of water loss just from not maintaining the system on a more regular basis,” Chris said. 

Through small adjustments and minor repairs to his irrigation system totaling less than $100, Chris was able to reduce his home’s outdoor water use by 34% compared to 2022, and the cost of his bi-monthly water bills fell as well. Those incredible results have come without a single change to the way Chris and his wife have used water inside their Tiburon home where they’ve lived for many years. 

With the 2021 front lawn replacement and the relatively simple maintenance actions in 2023 that he undertook himself, Chris calculated recently that they are now using 41% less water than their historical average. 

“In hindsight, we’ve been using more water and thereby spending more money than we needed to on the yard – for many years,” Chris said.

On top of reducing irrigation by roughly 50% compared to prior years, Chris said he purchased and installed a discounted Flume Smart Home Water Monitor in 2022 through Marin Water, which alerted him to several irrigation leaks before any significant water waste occurred. 

When he took advantage of the UC Master Gardeners’ free Marin Friendly Garden Walks program, the expert gardeners who visited his home reaffirmed his outdoor irrigation actions, and provided a list of low-water-use plants that could help Chris achieve further savings in the future. For now, Chris is happy to be finding savings and using water more sustainably. And he said he is happy to share his story and hopes that this will inspire other Marin homeowners to take some of the same simple steps to optimize their own landscape irrigation.

Back to Customer Success Stories