Sustainable Residential Landscapes in Florida: Controlled Comparison of Traditional versus Florida-Friendly Landscaping
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 7
Abstract
A comparison of water use and maintenance effort was made between traditional and Florida-Friendly Landscaping (FFL). Traditional Florida landscapes are generally turf dominated with minimal shrubbery, all indiscriminately irrigated using single-zone, large-rotor sprinklers. Conversely, FFL landscapes feature reduced turf cover, substantial areas with mulched ornamental beds, and zoned irrigation that includes microirrigation and smart controllers. This study used three identically sized landscape replicates (each ; ), with half of each landscaped in a traditional Florida manner using 75% turf, and the other half using an FFL landscape that reduced turf extent to 25% but incorporated groundcovers and mulched beds. During a 12-month establishment period, the FFL landscape used 69.7% less irrigation water than the traditional landscape, and 83.9% less water in a 34-month postestablishment period. Substantial postestablishment water savings were realized by simply turning off the microirrigation to the ornamental beds and visually inspecting for drought stress. After establishment, the average maintenance labor was similar in both landscape types; however, the time spent mowing or hand weeding between the two landscape types was nearly reciprocal.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Center for Land Use Efficiency, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 7 • July 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 14, 2020
Accepted: Feb 23, 2021
Published online: Apr 29, 2021
Published in print: Jul 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 29, 2021
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