Field Tool
Lawn Removal Water Calculator
What a turf conversion actually saves, and how many plants it takes to do it properly.
Not sure which is closest? Enter your ZIP in the EPA WaterSense Water Budget Data Finder and match on both peak ET and peak rainfall — not on which city is nearest.
Your rate is on your water bill, or on your provider's rate schedule page. Two things to watch. Many utilities bill in CCF — hundred cubic feet — rather than thousands of gallons; one CCF is 748 gallons, so multiply a CCF rate by 1.34 before entering it here. And most rates are tiered, so use your highest summer tier rather than the base rate, because irrigation is what pushes you into it. Leave out fixed service charges — those don't change with how much you water.
Turf replacement rebates exist across the West at very different rates and caps, and funding runs out. Enter your own water provider's terms. We don't track them.
Select a climate match and enter a turf area to see the estimate.
These figures assume the replacement planting is low or very low water use, densely planted, on drip, and in an exposed setting — full sun, gravel mulch, no wind protection. That is what most front yards are. A shaded, protected bed uses less.
These are irrigation-season figures, not year-round ones. The federal source counts only the months when the landscape actually needs watering — roughly March through October in this climate — and already subtracts the rainfall a location typically gets. Nobody waters in January and the numbers don't assume anyone does. One consequence worth remembering: don't divide the annual figure by twelve to get a monthly bill. The water is spent across about seven months, not spread evenly over the year.
Plant count follows a 36-inch on-center triangular spacing standard, which works out to 13 plants per 100 square feet and is sized to reach roughly 50 percent coverage in five years. Some rebate programs accept 10 per 100 square feet. That is a looser standard, and it looks thin in year three.
Gravel, bark and crushed rock are ground cover, but they are not plant coverage. Do not count them toward filling the space.
This is a planning estimate, not a measurement. The source method carries a wide range of possible answers and is no substitute for a meter or an irrigation audit.
Irrigation factors: Federal Energy Management Program, Guidelines for Estimating Unmetered Landscaping Water Use, PNNL-19498, July 2010, Tables 1, 3 and 6.
Plant spacing and coverage standard: City of Bend Development Code 3.2.300(D)(6). This is a commercial site-plan standard adopted here as a design floor. It is not a code requirement for a residential lawn conversion, and your jurisdiction may differ.