Florida-Friendly Homeowners Associations
Save Water and Money

As the drought enters its third year, homeowners associations from Honeymoon Island to Sun City Center are looking for relief from brown lawns, dying annuals and high water bills. Professionals from the Florida Yards & Neighborhood program are helping them save money and water – while making their communities more attractive.

Venetian Bay, a community of 73 townhomes in St. Petersburg, was one of the first associations to seek help. Sara Lopez, an HOA board member, contacted Chris Claus, water conservation coordinator with the St. Petersburg Water Resources Department, because the community was using an average of 460,000 gallons of potable water per month for irrigation – at a cost of up to $10,000.

Reclaimed water was unavailable in the area and the community’s coastal location meant that surficial irrigation wells would be too salty. Claus coordinated an evaluation of the community’s sprinkler system through the Sensible Sprinkling Program to determine zone-by-zone efficiency ratings then linked the board to Doris Heitzmann, community outreach coordinator with the Pinellas County Extension office.

“I knew that a cooperative effort between the city and the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program could guide in developing a long-range strategy that saves water while maintaining an attractive and functional landscape,” said Claus.

Heitzmann recommended implementing Florida-friendly landscaping practices such as adding mulch to plant areas, using droughttolerant plants and replacing high-water use annuals with colorful, drought-tolerant ornamental plants.

“What made this project special was working with the city so we had measured watersavings statistics,” said Heitzmann. “I workwith communities every day and while you do see results, they are not as tangible as seeing the concrete numbers provided by the water audit.”

And the results were dramatic – costs dropped by up to 45% and the community saved approximately 2.4 million gallons of water a year.

“Not only have we conserved precious water and saved money for the residents by adopting Florida-friendly principles, but we also have achieved notable results in design and management,” said Lopez.

In addition to helping the HOA conserve water, Heitzmann and Claus also helped create lawn, landscape and irrigation maintenance specifications to assist the community in finding a new landscaping prime contractor who could meet all their needs. “It was impressive to experience firsthand the synergy and great alignment between the city and the extension office to provide tangible support to those interested in creating efficient and beautiful landscapes,” said Lopez.

Royal Stewart Arms Battles High Water Bills

Irrigation costs were busting the budget of the Royal Stewart Arms condominium complex, located on Honeymoon Island in Dunedin.

“We were spending almost $40,000 a year,” said Sharon Wilson, property manager for the complex that includes eight residential buildings with 449 condos. “Because we border a sensitive area and reclaimed water is not available to us, we knew we had to look at other solutions.”

Linda Hildenbrand, one of the landscape committee members, contacted Heitzmann, who met with the landscape committee and property manager. She suggested the association transform some common area into Florida-friendly landscapes with micro-irrigation – and helped them apply for grants to pay for the project.

With an $8,887 grant from the city, Al Blalock, landscape committee chair, taught volunteers and the maintenance workers how to retrofit the irrigation system with microirrigation. In all, 20 residents logged 486 volunteer hours.

Instead of depending upon timers, Blalock manually turned the micro-irrigation system on during the plants’ establishment period. He continues to monitor the plants in all the common areas, turning on the water only when it is needed.

Blalock and the other association members also learned they could do the same with the grass, skipping a week of irrigation when the lawn did not need it.

“Doris told us that turf goes dormant in the winter months and does not need as much water to survive,” said Blalock. “We were worried when it got a little brown, but it grew back and looks as good as ever.”

After learning about the benefits of skipping a week of irrigation, they decided to take it one step further. “We do more than skip a week, we skip months,” said Hildenbrand. Using irrigation systems only when needed, the community saved 2,947,000 gallons of water and $13,921 over the same period as the previous year.

“The documented water and cost savings are impressive,” said Sallie Parks, member of SWFWMD’s Governing Board member and co-chair of the Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board who attended a Dunedin city commission meeting in support and recognition of the efforts at Royal Stewart Arms.

“It takes a champion to lead,” said Parks. “This condo association is an example to the city and the entire community.”

Gulf Harbors Beautifies Landscape Without Increasing Water Use

Gulf Harbors Property Manager Susan Bedford initially contacted Heitzmann for a landscape evaluation and advice on how to deal with the declining turf areas located between carports and buildings. A horticulturist, Heitzmann often helps property owners with lawn and landscape problems.

The 17 areas with declining turf were not watered by an irrigation system and had been covered with a variation of St. Augustinegrass. Some of the areas were dry, others were wet, and many were partially shaded.

“We looked into installing an irrigation system but it was too expensive and it wouldn’t solve our problems in the wet areas,” said Bedford.

Heitzmann suggested installing Florida-friendly landscaping in these trouble spots. The condo board agreed and gave Bedford funds to fix the problem areas. “The residents have been very supportive of the change,” said Bedford. “They like seeing the pretty plants instead of the thin turf we used to have there.”

In most of the areas, the entire plant bed is mulched. However, in the areas near gutter downspouts, they use rock because the mulch would float away.

“We haven’t had to fertilize any of these areas since they’ve been replanted,” said Bedford. “And if it gets a little dry, our grounds crew or the residents will hand-water the plants.”

In addition to fixing the trouble spots, Heitzmann and the condo staff also found other areas where they could apply the Florida-friendly principles and conserve water. “We’ve always monitored our irrigation system for the large turf areas,” said Bedford. “We shut it off and only water when the turf needs it, not just because it is our watering day.”

Heitzmann recommends that condo associations that do not have on-site staff name a designated member of the board to work with their landscaping company. “They should periodically walk the grounds with the landscaping contractor to inspect the area and communicate their needs,” said Heitzmann.

Fountain Bleu Goes Green A small neighborhood association with just 20 homeowners, the community of Fountain Bleu is located in the Renaissance section of Sun City Center. Like many homeowners associations, they initially contacted their extension service because their turf was turning brown and dying.

Bill O’Dell, the association president, invited Lisa Strange, Florida Yards & Neighborhoods community association coordinator covering Hillsborough and parts of Polk counties, to speak at an association meeting.

“We wanted to learn what’s out there and what we can do to improve our landscape while conserving water so we can be the example for other communities to follow,” said O’Dell.

Fountain Bleu lawns are Bermudagrass, typically used on golf course putting greens. The community’s master developer required Bermuda grass because it is easier to use the same equipment to mow both golf courses and lawns.

Strange recommended visual checks on sprinkler heads as well as catch-can tests to ensure that irrigation systems are operating efficiently. She also told the group that the lawns were being cut too short. The recommended height for Bermudagrass is one-half to 1 1/2 inches tall.

“No matter what kind of grass you have, maintaining an efficient irrigation system and mowing the lawn to the proper height are two key practices to improving turf health,” she said. Other options for this association include installing turf that requires less water and increasing the size of the planting beds, which use less water than turf and can be very attractive.

Strange also pointed out other poor landscaping practices to the homeowners. For instance, white rock attracts heat during the day, “cooking” the plant roots. Using organic mulch instead helps retain moisture, moderates soil temperature, breaks down into natural nutrients and reduces erosion and weeds.

In other cases, sun-loving plants were growing in shady locations and vice versa. “Another important tenet of Florida-friendly landscaping ‘right plant, right place,’ ” Strange said.

To learn more about Florida-friendly landscaping, visit www.WaterMatters.org/yards including contact information for the county extension offices and Florida Yards & Neighborhoods coordinators.