Who:Representatives from the Southwest Florida Water Management District; Doris Heitzmann, Florida Yards & Neighborhoods homeowners association outreach coordinator with the Pinellas County Extension office, members of the condominium association’s (COA) landscape committee and the Royal Stewart Arms property manager
What:Royal Stewart Arms is an example of an COA that puts the “Skip a Week” of irrigation concept into action. In addition to only watering when needed, the COA’s landscape committee worked with Heitzmann to renovate the community’s common areas using Florida-friendly landscaping principles. The result is a beautiful, water-conserving landscape that saves money.
Before learning about the “skip a week” concept and installing micro-irrigation in Florida-friendly landscaped areas, Royal Stewart Arms used 3,640,000 gallons of potable water for irrigation between Oct. 2006 and June 2007. This cost $17,597.
During Oct. 2007 and June 2008, the community did not irrigate the common areas. The association only used 693,000 gallons of water for irrigation, which cost $3,676. That’s a savings of 2,947,000 gallons of water and $13,921 over the same period as the previous year!
When: Thursday, Jan. 22, 10 a.m.
Additional Information: Royal Stewart Arms is a 55+ community that includes eight residential buildings with 449 condos. The COA was spending almost $40,000 a year on irrigation costs. Reclaimed water is not available to Royal Stewart Arms because it borders a sensitive area.
The COA secured a grant for $8,887 from the City of Dunedin to expand the planting areas in the front of the complex and install micro-irrigation.
In all, 20 residents, including the landscape committee and many members of the garden club, logged 486 hours volunteering on the project.
The landscape committee monitors the common area planting beds and only irrigates when needed. The committee does the same with the grass, often skipping a week or more of irrigation.
District On-site Contact: Robyn Felix, media relations manager, 813-781-9817 (cell)
Directions: The community is located at 1 Royal Stewart Parkway, on Honeymoon Island in Dunedin.