The summertime practice of frittering away precious water!

[Aunt Marg]

So, most here can attest to experiencing one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and with drought-like conditions visiting nearly every corner of the planet this year, most everything is parched, burned, and heat-stressed, including people.

Nevertheless, it never fails to amaze me, watching people pour perfectly good drinking water to their yellowed, dry, sunburned lawns, and so late towards the end of the growing season in hopes of reclaiming a little of the spring-green freshness that so many of us enjoy when the month of May makes it's debut.

Even more maddening is observing waves of water running down sidewalks and streets, because as everyone knows, in order to keep a rich and green lawn, one must douse surrounding concrete and asphalt areas with copious amounts of water, and then there are those who take it one step further, standing out in front of their residences hosing-down the street in front of their houses, because why not fritter-away a little more perfectly good drinking water around your home while you're at it.

My soapbox rant for the evening of Saturday, September 5, 2020.

 

[mlh]

Good evening Aunt Marg. One time we were on a water restriction because the reservoir was low because of the drought and our neighbors still watered.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Good evening Aunt Marg. One time we were on a water restriction because the reservoir was low because of the drought and our neighbors still watered.

Typically by late spring, early summer, we're on watering restrictions, too, Mlh, but as you have witnessed in your day, we, too, observe homeowners abusing watering schedules and restrictions in order to keep their lawns looking green, and it's so disheartening.

We're actually planning on getting rid of 80% of our lawn by 2022, and I'm not going to miss it one bit.

 

[mlh]

I think watering the lawn is wasteful anyway. Mother nature does what she is going to do. She does not need our help. I say let the lawn life cycle as it is intended to. What will you be doing to get rid of your lawn?

 

[Aunt Marg]

I think watering the lawn is wasteful anyway. Mother nature does what she is going to do. She does not need our help. I say let the lawn life cycle as it is intended to. What will you be doing to get rid of your lawn?

I agree, Mlh!

We want to incorporate either a rectangular or circular feature in the front with an Italianate trellis surround that dear husband wants to build by-hand out of 1x2's so it's sturdy, and then we want some stonework to accent, which we're not sure yet how we're going to design that yet, but the finished project will encompass 3/4 of the front, and then in the back we want a large walk feature that will eat-up a good portion of the lawn, and the remaining lawn left will be replaced with a large inlaid stone seating area and raised conifer garden.

We've been looking at pictures of parks around the world to get ideas, and while it's going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears, I think the end result will speak for itself.

Over the past 25 years we've been improving and renovating, and not having a lot of money to get it all done at once, we've had to do it step-by-step, but with intervals between each project, it's allowed us to design things our way, and so far it's coming along nicely.

Once we've got some of the more messier work out of the way, I'll look at posting some before and after pictures.

 

[Jules]

Good ideas, Aunt Marg. We have very little lawn because we have very little property. I was looking at it thinking I’d rather have flagstone or something in the front. DH wanted grass in the back so the grandkids can play. For us, the underground sprinkler uses minimal water. Our water bills are very reasonable.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Good ideas, Aunt Marg. We have very little lawn because we have very little property. I was looking at it thinking I’d rather have flagstone or something in the front. DH wanted grass in the back so the grandkids can play. For us, the underground sprinkler uses minimal water. Our water bills are very reasonable.

Love your flagstone idea, Jules!

Related to water billing, we're not under such as of yet, and I hope it never comes, but leave it to those who like to wash streets out front of their homes and sport golf-green lawns when a majority of everyone else's lawns are dry and dead, and I see water billing in the very near future.

How times have changed though, for I remember mom would setup the garden sprinkler for us kids and we'd jump and run through the water for hours. What fun we had.

 

[Don M.]

Water is going to become an increasingly "stressed" utility, in many locales, as populations increase, and supplies are not increased. It's been decades since any new dams were built, and the infrastructure in most cities was built many years ago. Then, increasing pollution has made the water in some of the cities almost "nasty" as it is so loaded with chlorine, etc....hence, the increase in bottled water use...which creates even more pollution with all the plastic bottles. The desert SW, and much of California are probably seeing the biggest issues....Lake Mead, for example, is dropping more every year.

Here, in the middle of the country, we still get ample rain...sometimes almost too much. Since we moved to the boondocks, I seldom do any "watering", other than keeping the garden going....even with ample water in our well. Whatever grows in the yard is ok by me....I just keep it mowed so it doesn't look like a weed patch.

The solution, IMO, for cities and towns, is to raise the water rates sufficiently to discourage any wasteful use of water, and use any revenues generated to improve the infrastructure.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Water is going to become an increasingly "stressed" utility, in many locales, as populations increase, and supplies are not increased. It's been decades since any new dams were built, and the infrastructure in most cities was built many years ago. Then, increasing pollution has made the water in some of the cities almost "nasty" as it is so loaded with chlorine, etc....hence, the increase in bottled water use...which creates even more pollution with all the plastic bottles. The desert SW, and much of California are probably seeing the biggest issues....Lake Mead, for example, is dropping more every year.

Here, in the middle of the country, we still get ample rain...sometimes almost too much. Since we moved to the boondocks, I seldom do any "watering", other than keeping the garden going....even with ample water in our well. Whatever grows in the yard is ok by me....I just keep it mowed so it doesn't look like a weed patch.

The solution, IMO, for cities and towns, is to raise the water rates sufficiently to discourage any wasteful use of water, and use any revenues generated to improve the infrastructure.

I agree.

We're lucky in the fact that we enjoy regular precipitation year-round, aside from summer heat-waves and droughts, that tend to never last longer than 4-6 weeks, but still, with enough people bucking the system, change will have to be made.