Hi Stephan its Gary @ Earl May. If your lawn is dormant at this time, I would not water cause your going to get weeds. Keep spraying & removing weeds from the yard so they don't spread. Some are very invasive. You will probably have to do some fall over seeding in earlySept to get your lawn back. this is when you will have to start watering again. Any questions call me at the store @ 223-8827.

We recommend watering plants and trees every other day. We do have irrigation meters which eliminate the sewer charges on water used outside.

We'll leave the tree question to Gary Turner.

Hi Anne, its Gary @ Earl May. watering trees & shrubs is very important in high heat-drought conditions. Removal & replacing dead trees can be very expensive! Water large established trees 3 times a wk at a slow drip from the hose for 20 minutes. shrubs & ornamentals 3 times a wk slow drip for 5 minutes.

That is actually one of the worst times to water your lawn. During the heat of the day, evaporation rates are very high and you might be losing more water to evaporation than you are putting into your lawn.

The best time to water your lawn is the early morning, pre-dawn time.

Hi Jessica,
Best time to water lawn late evening 8:00 to 11:00 p.m or early morning
4:00 a.m-6:30 a.m. Gary from Earl May.

All of Urbandale's water comes from a surface water supply, such as the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. While we are appreciative of consumers using water wisely, at this time there are no strict conservation requirements in effect. We recommend watering every other day.

We recommend washing full loads of laundry, as well as running the dishwasher only when full. Showers use less water than taking a bath. A running toilet is the largest water waster for a household. Often, a leak in a toilet cannot be seen or heard. Leaks in toilets can be found by performing a simple dye test. Add food coloring to the tanks of all toilets in the home, and without flushing, let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Then check the bowl of the toilet. If color is found in the bowl, the toilet is leaking. A simple fix is to replace the flush valve in the tank.

We recommend periodically checking for leaks within your home. While a leaking toilet is most often the culprit, humidifiers, softeners, and faucets are also good places to check.

Wow that's a cool tip on the toilet thing. Thanks!

I imagine doing a water leak check would also help on the water bill at the end of the month, too. Do you recommend doing the water leak check yourself or having a professional come do it for you?

Preventing and fixing water leaks within the home can certainly have an impact on your monthly water billing. You are able to check for leaks within the home by yourself. In addition to the tips we listed above, we recommend reading your water meter at night, after the day's water use has ended. Read it again in the morning before any water is used. If the reading has changed, that is an indication of a leak within the home.

Also, on average a person uses approximately 2000 gallons of water per month. A family of four should expect consumption of approximately 8000 gallons. Compare your month's usage to the average for your family size. Consumption significantly higher than the average usage can be an indicator of a leak.

The Urbandale Water Utility does perform courtesy leak checks for our residental customers. To schedule an appointment, please contact our office at 278-3940.

We have quite a new dishwasher we seldom use. I'll bet I use WAY less water doing dishes than my dishwasher does. There's no need to fill the sink anywhere near full when doing dishes. I've seen people leaving the hot water on for rinsing all the time they are washing. What a waste. Turn the hot on ONLY when you're rinsing something.

I use my "gray water" for my outside plants and shrubs. I keep a large stainless steel bowl in my kitchen sink to catch water from rinsing veggies, etc., and I catch my shower/bath water in the tub and carry it out in buckets.

If the dishwasher is energy star rated it will use 5-7 gallons per load. You could do your dishes in less if you a low flow faucet (1gpm) and only run the water for less then 5 minutes. I believe that you can do it with less water but only marginally. (filling up the sink is a great idea) The point is, you arent wasting water if you use a dish washer that is energy star rated

The test is required by both state and local codes and for good reason: to protect the public health. Any time a potable water supply is connected to a potential source of contamination, such as an irrigation system or a water-powered sump pump, a backflow preventer is required. The backflow preventer device has check valves that prevent the water from reversing and coming back into your household and potentially the water main, effecting the health of your household and your neighbors. The test is required to ensure that the device is functioning properly. After all, you wouldn't want to drink the chemicals that you've just applied to your lawn.