Watersmart Video Resources

Welcome to our new video resources library.

Here you will find videos about how to be smart about water use in your home landscape. Also, check out recordings of our past live events and virtual classes!

Video Topics

Native Plants and Water Efficient Landscaping

Trees for North Texas

Trees provide beauty and much needed shade in our hot North Texas summers. Planting a tree can provide a habitat for birds, reduce the temperature of your house, and maybe even produce fruit. Watch this video to learn how to pick ’em, plant ’em, and prune ’em.

Backyard Composting

Turn yard and kitchen scraps into lush compost to use in your garden! Composting at home can reduce waste sent to the landfill and create soil amendments for a heathy landscape. Compost piles can be made in a variety of ways and be maintained for different purposes.

Gardening for Pollinators

Add life and color to your yard by creating a pollinator garden! Learn about the best plants to plant and features to install to attract butterflies, bees, and birds to your North Texas yard.

10 Easy Tips for an Earth Friendly Yard

Do your part to save the Earth! Making more environmentally friendly choices around the home doesn’t have to be hard!

Make small changes to your North Texas yard to make a big impact on your resource use and the environment by making efficient choices.

Landscape Design for North Texas Yards

The climate in North Texas can be harsh, but lush home landscapes can be created using the right plants and design principles. Walk through design examples from start to finish with a professional landscape designer and get inspiration for all types of amazing landscape designs.

Butterflies, Bees, and Birds: Creating a Pollinator Garden

Add life and color to your yard by creating a pollinator garden!

Hear about the best plants and features to install to attract butterflies, bees, and birds to your North Texas yard. Walk through the process of creating a brand new pollinator garden from scratch.

Tough Plants for North Texas Part 1: Low Maintenance Landscape Design

Learn how to design your landscape with future maintenance in mind. Create an efficient landscape that needs less time and resources by thinking ahead about plant type and placement. Hear tips and tricks about design aesthetic and “lazy” maintenance plants.

Part 1 of a 3-part virtual class series.

Tough Plants for North Texas Part 2: Perennials

Learn about native and adapted perennials that will come back to produce beautiful flowers and vegetation year after year. Hear about the best plants for our tough Texas climate, what to expect when you grow them, and how to maintain them.

Part 2 of a 3-part virtual class series.

Tough Plants for North Texas Part 3: Trees, Bushes, and Vines

Learn about native and adapted woody plants that will add interest and structure to your North Texas home landscape. Hear about the best trees, bushes, and vines for our tough Texas climate, better replacements for common high maintenance woodies, and proper pruning techniques.

Part 3 of a 3-part virtual class series.

From Plants to Sprinklers: Efficient Landscapes Q+A

North Texas landscapes don’t have to be difficult! This video was a live question and answer session with questions submitted from an online audience about their North Texas home landscapes. Experts Toni Moorehead, landscape designer and Tarrant County Master Gardener, and Steve Chaney, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Agent and horticulture expert, answered participants’ questions.

Lawns and Gardening in North Texas

Pots in Small Spots: Container Gardening for North Texas

You don’t have to have a big yard to have an awesome garden! Learn about the best plants to put in containers, the types of containers to use, and how to care for your potted plants. Get inspiration for plant combinations and innovative containers to plant in!

Fall Vegetable Gardening

Grow your own food at home this fall with the best vegetables for North Texas gardens! North Texas has a long growing season that offers the opportunity to grow vegetables year round. Start prepping for your fall veggies right now! Growing your own at home can be easy when you know what to plant and how to care for them to get the juiciest harvests.

Gardening for Wildlife

Add life and color to your yard by attracting local wildlife to your yard! Learn about the best plants to plant and features to install to attract butterflies, bees, and birds to your North Texas yard. Then hear about some of the other cool critters that might visit and what you can do to make truly wild garden!

Tough Texas Lawn Care Part 1: Best Turf Types

The climate in North Texas can be harsh, but having a lush lawn is easy with the right turf type. Not all grasses are the same and there are tons of new varieties on the market. Let our lawn expert teach you all the tricks to make your grass green, even in the Texas heat.

Tough Texas Lawn Care Part 2: Maintaining Your Lawn

Lawn looking lackluster? Unsure when to fertilize your yard? Don’t know how long it has been since you’ve sharpened your lawnmower blades? Getting a lush lawn is easy if you know what to do! Let us teach you all the tricks to make your grass green, even in the Texas heat.

Tough Texas Lawn Care Part 3: Troubleshooting and Pests

Certain spot just won’t stop dying? Don’t know what is causing lawn unevenness? Can’t get rid of that one type of weed? Worried you might have underground pests? Lawns can have a variety of issues, but troubleshooting them doesn’t have to be difficult. Walk through the most common problems in North Texas lawns with an expert.

Container Gardening

Vegetable Gardening

North Texas has a long growing season that accommodates many different types of vegetables. Growing your own at home can be easy when you know what to plant and how to care for them to get the juiciest harvests.

Insects in the Garden: Good and Bad

Our gardens are homes to many different types of insects, but how do you know which ones are good and which ones are bad?

From butterflies to aphids, there are some insects we want in our yards and some we don’t. Attend this free online class to learn about all the most common insects you might see in your North Texas yard and maybe some interesting ones you’ve never seen!

Rain Water Harvesting

DIY Rainwater Harvesting Barrel Build

Rainwater harvesting is great for North Texas because you can keep some of the rain we get during the spring and fall to use during our hot and dry summers. Even a small roof area can produce a usable amount of water during an average rainfall. From huge cisterns to small DIY barrels, capturing rainwater can be done by anyone.

Make Your Own Rain Barrel

Fun video on how to build a rain barrel! A great way to capture rainwater runoff from your roof, and storing it for later use in the landscape when things dry out. Rainwater harvesting has many benefits. It’s free, plants love it, and it reduces the impact on drinking water supplies. One inch of rain on one ft2 of catchment area (your roof) will yield 0.62 gallons. Check out our Event Calendar for Rain Barrel Building Workshops in your area! Video produced by Texas A&M AgriLife.

Diy Sprinkler Videos

DIY Outdoor Faucet Drip System

This video walks you through the steps you can take to install a drip irrigation system in an existing vegetable garden using an outdoor faucet. Installing your own drip irrigation system will not only save water, but help reduce weeds and time spent hand-watering.

DIY Home Sprinkler Repair

Just in time for Fix a Leak Week 2021, learn about common breaks and sources of inefficiency, then learn how to fix them all with minimal tools and time. This video covers all the parts of a typical home sprinkler system, how to determine how much water your system uses, how to program your controller, how to adjust heads and make easy DIY repairs.

DIY Drip Irrigation Workshop

Have you been thinking about converting to drip irrigation, but don’t know where to start? Drip irrigation allows water to slowly seep into the soil, giving your plants a more thorough watering, all while using less water. Walk through the ins and outs of drip irrigation, then learn how to easily convert your existing home sprinklers to drip.

Care and Repair DIY Sprinkler Workshop

If you haven’t checked out your sprinkler system lately, there are probably some issues that are easily fixed. Show your sprinkler system some love! Walk through common breaks and sources of inefficiency, then learn how to fix them all with minimal tools and time.

Converting from Spray to Drip

Converting from spray to drip irrigation is not hard and can be done by anyone! Switch to drip and do it yourself to save money and water. Check out this video to learn how!

Wireless Rain and Freeze Sensor Installation

Installing a rain and freeze sensor is a proven way to lower your outdoor water use by 5-10 percent annually. They will trigger automatic sprinkler systems to shut off during downpours or when temperatures dip near freezing. Here’s a video to show you how to install a wireless version. Go for it.

Fixing a Leaning Sprinkler Head

Leaning sprinkler heads are annoying, right? They’re a common problem that develops as the soil of a landscape shifts and settles over time. But, don’t be annoyed. Just fix them. Here’s how…

Spray Head Body Replacement

In-ground automatic sprinkler systems are a convenient way to water your landscape. That is, until they break. Sprinkler parts break and wear out from time to time, but don’t sweat it, the repairs can be pretty simple. Here is a quick video showing you how to do the work yourself.

Spray Head Nozzle Replacement

Sprinkler nozzles are the most exposed component of in-ground sprinkler systems. Because of this, they are often the first parts to break. Replacing a sprinkler nozzle is pretty simple, as this video will show. But keep a few things in mind before you begin:

Replacement parts should match the old parts as closely as possible. The spray pattern and spray distance (throw) should be indicated on top of the spray nozzle.
When removing the broken part, try not to allow dirt or mud to get into the water line. This could cause clogging and poor performance of the new parts.
Most new spray nozzles will come with a matching filter. This filter will keep debris from clogging the nozzle. Replace filter when replacing the nozzle.

DIY Home Plumbing

DIY Home Plumbing Repair

This video walks you through common home plumbing issues and sources of water waste, then you see how to fix them yourself. You don’t need a bunch of special tools or knowledge to fix minor plumbing problems in your own house.