Fourteen and a half inches. That is roughly what the sky gives this city in an average year, measured over three decades at the airport station. Against it sit 3,100 hours of sunshine and 38 days a year above 90 degrees.
Sprinkler zones that used to soak a lawn evenly can leave a brown patch by the fence, or a valve clicks on and never quite shuts off, quietly running up a water bill nobody notices until it arrives.
Few landscaping choices drink as much water as a traditional lawn, often requiring more per square foot than any other planting on a residential property.
