After 13 years here in TV, I finally found a watering schedule (used by many many residents) that keeps my zoysia lawn green and uses less water than any of my prior schedules of 2 times per week or 3 times per week during near drought conditions (like now). It relies on the theory that a little water daily keeps the roots from drying out. To avoid using more water than you currently use, take your minutes per zone currently times 2 (allowed watering times per week) and divide by 7 (days per week). The resulting number is your minutes per day of watering per zone. Eg; If I am watering 35 minutes per zone twice a week = 70 total minutes per zone per week divided by 7 = 10 min per zone daily. I didn't believe this would work because landscaping guys and fertilizer guys always said to water 35-45 min per zone because the roots are so deep. I tried it and my lawn stays green everyday. I then played with it and found I could reduced the minutes for different zones and the lawn still stays green. I still get stress areas but they are much smaller than before and my water consumption is lower than comparative months in prior years. The water police would think I am abusing the system but I am actually using less water and have a healthier lawn. Kinda like healthier people eat smaller meals more frequently maybe :-)
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