Summers in Florida can be brutal, with record high temperatures, and unusually prolonged periods of drought. These conditions, along with watering restrictions across most of the state, have wreaked havoc on lawns. Yards are dying because homeowners are afraid of getting fined if they water more than they are allowed.
I find it ironic that people have no problem speeding 5-10 mph over the speed limit, but they abide by watering restrictions as if the penalty were jail time for not doing so. I believe watering restrictions are, in a very broad sense, good. However, in periods of extremely hot and dry weather, they are typically useless.
Every yard is different, and this is where it becomes very hard to set a standard and expect everyone to abide by it. I have seen two yards in the same neighborhood growing in completely opposite conditions. One was growing in the shade, on low land, and backed up to a river. The other was on top of a sand hill, in constant sunlight. As you can imagine, the yard on the hill dried out quicker and required much more irrigation water to stay alive.
The secret behind a nice yard
Let’s face it, the average homeowner wants a nice yard.
In order for them to have this, they spend money on irrigation systems, water to keep it alive, mowers, fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides; not to mention the amount of time they put into their yard in order to keep it looking good.
Many people hire out the mowing and chemical application for their lawn, so that adds to the cost even more. There are two options that a homeowner can take when it comes to watering restrictions.
Either they can abide by them, or the can break them. Where I live, our watering restrictions allow us to water twice per week during the summer months, and once per week during the winter. Since the winter is never a problem with watering restrictions, lets compare the two options for the summer with a 6,000 sq-ft yard:
The one who follows the rules
Homeowner 1 follows the rules by watering twice per week. However, due to the high temperatures and drought, the yard suffers. 3-4 week stretches with no rain and 95+ degree days takes it toll. As if that’s not bad enough, Grey Leaf Spot fungus appears, the yard gets mowed one day when it is stressed, and it causes streaks in the yard to die.
Although it is being sprayed with insecticide by a very reputable lawn spraying company, the yard gets chinch bugs because the insecticides which usually last 8-10 weeks are crystallizing and breaking down in as little as 2 weeks. The homeowner calls the lawn spraying company angry that they just paid to have insecticide applied, but still have chinch bugs (not to mention, the homeowner believes the streaks are chinch bug damage and blames it on the company).
The lawn spraying technician advises the homeowner that the yard needs more water, and, being a reputable company, they agree to respray the turf with more insecticide. This costs the company money for the chemical and labor. They inspect the control 10 days later and find a few chinch bugs, so they do a second retreat (more $ out of the company’s pocket).
Why you should break the rules every now and then
Somewhere around this point, it rains two or three times in a two week period. Some of the yard improves a little, but the Gray Leaf Spot fungus is still there because of the stressful weather, and the previous chinch bug damage is still there. A few more weeks go by with no rain, and there are chinch bugs in the turf again. Now the homeowner is extremely mad at the spray company, despite the fact that they company did everything in their power to control the chinch bugs.
The yard is sprayed several more times throughout the summer, but the overall condition gets worse. At the end of the summer, the homeowner may or may not be on good terms with the spraying company, but they pretty much realize the lack of water played a large part in how the yard looks, whether they want to admit it or not. Now it’s time to replace the dead areas in the yard. If we assume half the yard is dead, there is 3,000 sq-ft of turf that needs to be replaced.
Because many people are in this same boat, the price of turf has gone up and it now costs the homeowner approximately $900 for turf (not including delivery). If they choose to have someone install it for them, it will run about $1500 for everything. Now comes the ironic part. That new sod has to be watered twice a day for about a week (approximately 14 times), or until it gets rooted (it could take longer than a week).
Lucky for the homeowner, the watering restrictions do not apply to new turf.
Water restrictions are made to be broken
If the purpose of water restrictions is to save water, they’ve failed. The homeowner could have watered an additional day each week for 12 weeks during the summer and would have used the same amount of water. Or, they could have watered three days a week for 4 weeks, plus four days a week for the worst 4 weeks of the drought and used the same amount of water (12 additional watering cycles).
On top of the water Homeowner 1 did not save, they have spent $900-$1500 on new turf, have a few more gray hairs, and the lawn spraying company has either broken even or lost money on the account.
They hope the homeowner will stick with them and maybe they can make a little money next year.
The one who uses the necessary amount of water
Homeowner 2 is not as worried about following the rules. They have their irrigation timer set to twice a week, but they manually turn it on to water an extra day whenever the grass begins to show signs of drought stress (folded blades and a grayish tint).
Although they would rather only water twice a week (water costs money), they look at the bigger picture. Because they stay on top of the watering needs of their grass, it remains healthy all summer. The grass never gets severely stressed, so there is no Gray Leaf Spot.
There is always adequate moisture in the soil, so no chinch bugs. The homeowner goes through the summer with one of the better looking yards in the neighborhood. They are happy with the spraying company, and the company is proud to put their sign in the yard after each treatment. At worst, there may be a small spot that wasn’t being covered good by the irrigation, or was next to concrete that caused it to get hot and dry out. This small spot may need a couple pieces of sod to fill in (approximately $1-$1.50 each).
In the end, Homeowner 2 came out far ahead of Homeowner 1. Not only monetarily, but also in water consumption.
One size does not fit all
I am in no way advising that everyone break the watering restrictions. I am only saying that the restrictions are in no way “one size fits all”. More water and money can be saved if everyone takes an educated approach to watering their lawn.
There are a number of ways to help conserve water, such as rainfall shutoff valves, or soil moisture meters for your irrigation system, there are sprayable products that claim to hold moisture in the soil and prevent it from leeching, or evaporating.
You have to figure out what works for you, under your budget, and with your beliefs towards rules.
For any awn care help visit www.monster-cuts.com or call 1 866-785-2967.
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