Well, I went back through our monthly bills each month, and we somehow managed to spend less on water this year than we did last year, and that was with eight additional shrubs to water! We never paid more than $20 a month. Next year, I am definitely going to care more about keeping the plants happy than keeping the water bill down. I mean, water conservation is important, but think I need to focus more on getting my young plants established at this point.

Our water bill is always very low, too. But our next door neighbor was always out in her yard with the hose in her hand (doing more harm than good) and she complained bitterly about her two and three hundred dollar water bills. She made me promise to never, ever tell her husband that our bill was rarely over $ 30.00, at the most.

The more water you use on plants, the more you will have to use. Our lawn and landscaping looks every bit as good or better than hers with a fraction of the watering, even in the middle of the summer.

Frank

I think the major difference between the $15-$20 bills we had and the neighbor's $300 bills was that she was running sprinklers on her lawn, almost continuously. An acre and a half is a LOT of grass to water, so we never bother. It's bermuda, so it just goes dormant during dry spells.

I've been really impressed with how drought-tolerant some of our shrubs are. Even with the record heat and almost nonexistent rainfall, I only needed to water the established hollies, boxwoods, and photinias once or twice all summer.

When someone asks me to do a xeric landscape design, they are much surprised and sometimes concerned when the choice of plant material is very little different than the typical. They expect cactus or something, lol.

Also, as water meters get older they will loose accuracy. They will always read less as they age but never read higher. I remember a lady was cussing about her water bill and demanded a new meter. Well, we changed out the meter and her bill went up $15 per month. So, be careful what you ask for.