Denver Water aims to change customers’ attitudes about water by fostering a community-wide cultural shift to using more native and climate-adaptive landscapes.

Manager of Demand Planning Greg Fisher told members of the city’s Land Use, Transportation, and Infrastructure committee Tuesday that while his organization is not looking to dig up every square inch of bluegrass in its service area, it does want to encourage residents to find more diverse landscape options that save water and require less maintenance.

For example, in 2022, according to a post on the Denver Water website, Arapahoe County converted three acres of Kentucky bluegrass on the west side of its Administration Building on South Prince Street into a field full of non-irrigated prairie grass.

Once the prairie grass is established, the project is expected to save an estimated 1.5 million gallons of water.

But watering residential lawns in Denver’s hot, dry summers creates one of the most significant demands on local water supplies.

“Mondays and Wednesdays are the highest water use for us, and the fact that that use peaks really high on those days, and then comes back down, puts a lot of stress on our water system,” Fisher added. “So you may see in our mailers this year that we are asking our customers to change their watering days very simply, from Monday, Wednesday to Tuesday, Thursday or some other day.”

Fisher said that if customers can move away from the Monday-Wednesday watering schedule, “it will avoid substantial infrastructure costs in the future, if we can flatten out that weekly demand and energy costs because we are having to treat water at some of those highest, highest-cost times of the day.”

Summer watering restrictions include:

Water during cooler times of the day. Lawn watering is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Water two days per week, adding a third day only when needed. Watering more than three days per week is not allowed.

Avoid letting water pool in gutters, streets and alleys.

Do not waste water by letting it spray on concrete and asphalt.

Repair leaky sprinkler systems within 10 days.

Do not irrigate while it is raining or during high winds.

Use a hose nozzle with a shut-off valve when washing vehicles.

Longer grass is more water-efficient. Keep cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass between 2.5-3.5 inches and warm-season grasses between 1-3 inches.

Denver Water customers considering transforming landscapes may request a free bag of native grass seed, a mix of Sundancer buffalograss and Alma blue grama, by visiting www.denverwater.org.

Denver Water has also partnered with the Boulder nonprofit Resource Central to offer a limited number of discounts (up to $750) on 2025 turfgrass removal services for residential customers.

Application requirements include removing at least 200 square feet of water-intensive turfgrass, a photo of the area to be transformed, and an explanation of plans for the new water-wise landscape. Artificial turf is not permitted.

To learn more, visit www.resourcecentral.org/lawn.