Most of the runoff you see down St George gutters in June is not overwatering. It is the right amount of water delivered faster than our soil can take it.
Two separate things get confused here constantly: the rules about when you may water, and the guidance about how you should. Breaking the first can get you cited. Ignoring the second is why half the landscapes in this county are simultaneously overwatered and thirsty.
The rule: no daytime irrigation in summer
Most cities in Washington County. Including St George, Washington City and Ivins. Prohibit landscape irrigation between roughly 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the summer months. St George's landscape standards restrict outdoor irrigation with culinary water during the middle of the day from 1 June to 1 September.
The shorthand people use locally is water in the dark, and it is a good enough summary to act on. Enforcement is real: violations can be cited, and repeat offenders can have water service shut off. Some cities also prohibit spraying down driveways, sidewalks and other hard surfaces.
Every city sets its own ordinance, so the details differ. If you want the exact wording for your address, your city's water department is the authority. This article is a practical summary, not a legal one.
The best window
Within the legal hours, the preferred time is roughly 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Evaporation loss is lowest, wind is usually lowest, and pressure is typically better because fewer systems are running. Watering at 8 p.m. in July still loses a noticeable share to a hot surface and warm air.
The schedule: how many days a week
The Washington County Water Conservancy District publishes a seasonal schedule. These are maximums, not targets. If your landscape looks fine on fewer, use fewer.
| Months | Days per week |
|---|---|
| November - February | Up to 1 (often none needed in December or January) |
| March - April | Up to 3 |
| May - August | Up to 4 |
| September - October | Up to 3 |
Two things people get wrong with this table. The first is leaving the controller on the summer program into October, which wastes a great deal of water for no benefit. The second is running it through December and January, when irrigation is typically not needed at all. If you set your controller in May and have not touched it since, that is the cheapest fix available on your property.
At elevation the shoulder seasons shift. In La Verkin at 3,816 feet the growing season is shorter at both ends, so the autumn wind-down should start earlier than the county-wide table suggests.
Cycle-and-soak: the part that actually matters
This is the single most useful thing in the District's guidance and the most widely ignored.
Washington County soils are predominantly alkaline clay, frequently over a caliche hardpan. Clay has a low infiltration rate. It cannot absorb water anywhere near as fast as a spray head delivers it. Run a zone for twenty minutes straight and the first few minutes soak in; the rest runs off down the gutter. You paid for all of it.
That runoff you see down St George gutters in June is mostly not overwatering. It is the right quantity of water delivered at the wrong rate.
The recommended method
- Three cycles per watering day
- 5 minutes per cycle for fixed spray nozzles, or 10 minutes for rotating spray
- About an hour between cycles
Same total run time, three bites instead of one. Each cycle stops before runoff begins; the hour between lets it move down into the root zone. The result is water going deeper, roots following it deeper, and a lawn that copes far better with July. Which is the subject of a whole separate article, because shallow watering is the root of most of it.
Every modern controller can do this. Most are simply never set up for it.
Drip zones are different
Trees, shrubs and desert plantings on drip do not follow the lawn schedule. District guidance is:
- High-flow emitters: 20 to 40 minutes
- Low-flow emitters: 30 to 90 minutes
Longer runs, much less often. The aim is a deep, infrequent soak that encourages roots downward. Running a drip zone for five minutes daily is the worst of both worlds. It wets the surface, grows shallow roots and never reaches the depth the plant needs.
This applies to native and desert-adapted plants too, at least for the first two to three years. "Low water" describes an established plant, not a new one.
If you are converting to drip
Worth knowing that the District's turf rebate has specific irrigation requirements: conversion from spray to drip, with filters, pressure regulators, and emitters rated at 20 gallons per hour or less. If you are planning a conversion anyway, doing it to that specification keeps the rebate available. Details in the rebate guide. And note it only applies in four of the county's cities.
A five-minute audit worth doing
- Run each zone manually and watch it. Not on a schedule. Stand there. Look for heads spraying the sidewalk, blocked nozzles, misted spray from over-pressure, and any area getting nothing.
- Check for runoff. Time how long until water starts leaving the bed. That number is your maximum cycle length.
- Check the controller date. If it has not been changed since spring, it is almost certainly wrong now.
- Look for the dry corner. Almost every system has one. It is usually the spot the homeowner has been compensating for by overwatering everything else.
Irrigation repair is consistently the cheapest meaningful improvement on a struggling property here, and it is the first thing we look at before recommending anything larger. We audit and rebuild systems across Washington County.
Schedule, cycle-and-soak figures and drip run times are from the Washington County Water Conservancy District's published watering guide. Time-of-day restrictions vary by city and are summarised here for orientation. Confirm your own city's current ordinance with its water department.