You can do many things to reduce and control water running off your yard. When rainstorms hit, a tremendous amount of water falls rapidly to the yard surface, where it accumulates quickly and runs to lower ground. Runoff can be reduced by planting a mulched shrub bed or border at the low end of your yard to slow velocity. Trapping runoff can result in the creation of a miniature wetland in a small, inconspicuous part of your yard, enabling you to add wet-soil plant varieties to your landscape. Replacing areas currently in lawn grass will make a big difference in your total landscape water requirements.
Lawns require tremendous amounts of water.
On slopes or in heavily shaded areas, ground covers provide an excellent alternative requiring less water. Even converting a relatively small area to trees and shrubs will significantly save water over the course of a growing season. Mulching bare spots in the yard can reduce both runoff and the amount of sediment that accompanies it in storm events. Bare spots generally occur where foot traffic has worn grass thin, where quickly moving water has undermined the root system and where the ground has recently been replanted. Consider a mulch cover, however temporary, to remedy the problem.