Last month the people who oversee our secondary water informed us of restrictions. We had a drier-than-normal winter and spring and so, it's expected we'd get such a notice. The restrictions were not severe--basically no watering of yards on the weekends. I'm no expert on how much water is in reserve or how much will be saved by these moves, but it sounded reasonable.
And we've complied. By the looks of lawns around town, others have as well. I've probably seen more yellow lawns here than at any time in the past. The good news is lawns are usually hearty and can live on less water than we give them. Again, I'm no expert, either on water usage or lawn maintenance.
I've complained in the past about yard work. I really shouldn't do that. We are fortunate to have land that we can use to grow food and have a nice place to enjoy, but allergies and other issues cause me not do the yard work that's needed. It's something we're trying to improve. If I had the funds, I would gladly pay someone else do make our yard beautiful, but that shouldn't be the point of having a yard. Still, I'd do it.
This summer we made a change. We've watered less like everyone else, but one thing that's different is the number of times we've mowed our lawn. We used to mow it every week. Let's just say this summer we've mowed it a few times less than weekly. At times the grass has gotten quite high. Maybe someone in landscaping may think I'm nuts, but I think not moving a lawn helps keep it green. I've done zero research to back up my claim, just my observations. But if the lawn stays as green as it has (we've got yellow patches as well, just not many...), I think this might be a thing. I know I like the new schedule.
As more people move into the area, I'm sure restrictions will become the norm and not the exception. That's the way of things, I guess. If the same thing happens next summer, I'm going to try the "less-is-more" lawn mowing experiment again. We'll see what happens.
