Water is an essential ingredient in any beautiful landscape and with a little planning you can design a low-maintenance drought, tolerant environment that keeps water use to a minimum. Let's take a look at the seven steps to building an efficient landscape. Every successful project begins with a vision, so the first step is planning and design before you get started. Ask yourself what you want from your landscape. You need areas for recreation, outdoor, dining or relaxation, think about patios, sidewalks structures and gardens. You might want to include once you have a vision for your landscape.

Draw a sketch include your house, Sun orientation, existing trees and vegetation. What areas have the greatest sun exposure? Which zones collect water or dry out quickly now comes the design stage sketch out shrubs plants and landscape features, consider texture and color, as well as the lighting and watering needs of your plants, and that brings us to step 2 soil improvement. Adding organic matter and compost will benefit your landscape tremendously. It keeps plants growing strong and improves the water holding capacity of the soil, clay, soils and sandy soils get the greatest benefit from the soil amendment.

Now it's time to plan for grassy turf areas, turf reduces soil erosion, provides a place for recreation and improves both the appearance and the value of your property. Choose a grass that's well adapted to Oklahoma's climate Bermuda zuzia tall fescue and buffalo grass are all attractive choices in areas where tall fescue, continually struggles or needs to be reseated. Consider replacing with shade, loving, perennials or ground covers tall fescue is only recommended for moderately shady areas, not full Sun when it's time to mow, set your mower height at two to three inches it'll.

Keep your grass healthy and reduce watering needs, rather than bagging. Your clippings use a mulching lawn mower or spread the clippings around the yard that keeps valuable nutrients in the soil and locks in moisture next up is plant selection. Take a quick look at your sketch and select plants based on appearance lighting needs and watering requirements. Do your homework first and plan before you plant be sure to select drought, tolerant plants that are well suited for Oklahoma's climate.

Remember that trees and shrubs may take three to five years to become established, so don't plant them close to structures or surrounding plants. Now we're ready to add mulch two to three inches of mulch, creates an attractive landscape, prevents weed growth and locks in moisture. It's a great way to keep plants healthy and reduce your water usage and speaking of water usage. We can't forget to implement sensible irrigation. The number one mistake homeowners make is over-watering their turf grass.

This causes disease and fungal growth that spoils all your hard work to prevent over watering, establish a sensible watering schedule and irrigate only when needed, watering, frequently or on a regular schedule, may create shallow root systems, perform a water audit to determine how much water your irrigation system is emitting. Then schedule proper watering for the various zones of your yard.

Plans that are young or exposed to full Sun require more water than shaded or mature plants irrigate accordingly and check your irrigation system regularly for leaks, clogs and proper am now your landscape is lean and mean keep it that way. With a few simple steps prune your plant slightly during the prophecies fertilize based on a soil test, use slow release, fertilizer and reduce overall fertilizer use, keep your mower height at two to three inches to optimize lon health and perform regular maintenance checks on your sprinkler system.

Make seasonal irrigation adjustments to conserve water and maintain a healthy landscape want to learn even more about conserving water visit, squeeze every drop, calm and learn how to squeeze every drop of efficiency from your landscape.