Austin's watering rules and the yard that lives inside them
Austin Water has run watering restrictions year-round for years, with stages that tighten in drought. A yard that depends on watering whenever it likes dies in the first dry summer. Here is how the rules are structured, what each kind of watering is allowed, and how a landscape is built to need less than the allowance.
How the rules are structured
Austin Water assigns each address watering days based on the address and whether it is residential or commercial, and limits the hours to the cooler parts of the day. That schedule applies year-round in the city's standing conservation stage. When reservoir levels fall, the utility declares drought stages that cut the allowed days and hours further and add restrictions on things like filling pools and washing driveways. The rules distinguish between automatic irrigation systems, which get the fewest days, hose-end sprinklers, which get more, and drip irrigation, soaker hoses and hand watering, which are treated most generously. The current schedule and stage are published by Austin Water and change; the irrigation audit sets your controller to whatever is in force, and the licensed irrigator keeps it there.
What it means for a lawn
A warm-season lawn watered deeply once a week on its assigned day does fine in most summers; it is the lawn watered ten minutes every morning that dies, because its roots never went deeper than the top inch. The audit with catch cups sets a run time that puts down about an inch, in cycles so the water soaks into clay instead of running off, early in the morning in the allowed window. In a drought stage with fewer days, the lawn goes high, feeding stops, and some of it may go dormant; Bermuda and Zoysia come back from dormancy, St. Augustine often does not, which is one more argument for the right grass.
What it means for beds and trees
Beds go on drip, which the rules favor and which uses about half the water of spray. Trees are watered deeply and seldom at the drip line, by hand or by a soaker hose, and in a severe stage they are the priority over the lawn, because a dead oak is a $3,000 removal and a dead lawn is a pallet of sod. Three inches of mulch and compost in the soil keep what is applied.
The new-landscape variance
New sod and new plantings need more water than the schedule allows for their first weeks. Austin Water offers a temporary variance for establishing new landscape; the contractor explains how to request it, and the installation is scheduled so the establishment period is covered.
Designing for the rules
A yard built for Austin's water rules has a smaller lawn, only where it is used, in Bermuda or Zoysia; beds of natives and adapted plants on drip; mulch; a sprinkler system that has been audited and has a smart controller with a rain shutoff; and trees that are watered on purpose. It uses a fraction of the allowance in a normal summer and has room to spare in a drought stage. The xeriscape page and the plant guide cover how.
The suburbs
Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Leander, Lakeway, Kyle and Hutto each have their own utility and their own schedule and stages, many of them tied to the same Highland Lakes supply. The principles are identical; the assigned days differ, and the irrigator sets each controller to its own city's rule.
Questions on this
What day can I water?
It depends on your address and the current stage, and both are set by Austin Water. The irrigation audit sets the controller to the rule in force; check the utility's current schedule for the specific day.
Is drip really allowed when sprinklers are not?
Drip, soaker hoses and hand watering are treated more generously than spray under the rules, which is the main reason beds are converted to drip. The exact allowance depends on the stage.
Will my lawn survive a drought stage?
Bermuda and Zoysia go dormant and come back. St. Augustine often does not. Water the trees first, mow high, stop feeding, and expect some brown.
Can I water new sod every day?
With Austin Water's temporary variance for new landscape, yes, for the establishment period. The contractor explains how to request it before the install.
What is a smart controller worth under the rules?
It skips rain days and adjusts seasonally, and it can be locked to the assigned days, which keeps a system legal without anyone remembering the schedule. Set up properly it also cuts water use noticeably.
Do the same rules apply in Round Rock?
The same idea, different days and stages, set by Round Rock's utility. Each suburb has its own, and the irrigator sets the controller to the local rule.
Related reading: Irrigation repair · Xeriscaping · Lawn calendar · Sod installation