Lawns: What Shall We Do about Them?Saturday, June 09, 2007 - 09:00 AM
by Joan Bergsund
Tuolumne County lawns are looking lush and lovely following the annual winter soaking. You saw several in elegant shape if you joined the recent annual Master Gardener Garden Tour. Now irrigation is beginning as our weather heats up and the temperatures rise. How shall we maintain these lawns with the long hot summer looming ahead? Having received less than half of our normal annual precipitation, Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) is asking all residential customers to voluntarily reduce water use immediately, with a goal of 20% reduction. Since most of our outside water use goes to lawns, that's a hard sell for those with extensive gardens and rolling lawns. TUD suggests no outside irrigation or watering between noon and 7PM. Even-numbered addresses can water outside on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Odd-numbered addresses water outside only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. TUD has made available, free of charge, toilet leak test kits and low flow showerheads. Take advantage of their offer and go directly to their offices at Nugget Blvd. off Tuolumne Road. If you are a ditch customer, note that TUD will reduce deliveries by 25% from last year's usage.
Let's review methods of reducing water use. You've heard all this before, but one more time won't hurt. National Wildlife Federation provides these helpful tips.
Group plants together that have similar water requirements. Perhaps the plants that need water can be placed in a natural depression so that any errant drainage will benefit them. Wind can also reduce the available moisture. Plant drought tolerant trees and shrubs on the perimeter to buffer the wind. Prevent wasteful runoff by using porous materials like wood chips, gravel, crushed stone and other permeable materials for driveways, walkways and patios. Focus your attention on perennials that are native to our area. A 1-gallon size plant will use less water to become established than a 5-gallon size. Remove weeds which use water too; reserve the available moisture for ornamental plants and lawn. And finally, use mulch to suppress those weeds and to help retain moisture.
For lawns remember not to mow too short. The soil can be shaded by longer blades, again to retain moisture. Leave the clippings on the lawn – they provide valuable nutrients as fertilizer. Do you have small areas that are difficult to mow and water? Skip the grass altogether. Water infrequently but deeply to a depth of 4 to 6 inches. Don't water during the hottest part of the day. Heat plus wind will cause loss of up to 60% of the water through evaporation.
We can agree that a drip system is the most efficient, placing water right at the roots of the plant. Drip systems must be periodically inspected and maintained. Some folks are capturing rainwater from their downspouts for use during the dry summer. These large containers must be covered to prevent breeding mosquitoes.
This might be the time to consider reducing the size of your lawn and replacing portions of it with broad swaths of attractive mulch or with drought tolerant plants. Consider creating a prairie or meadow patch. Though new plantings will need irrigating for several seasons, the assumption is that in the long run they will need far less water than the lawn they are replacing. In past columns we have suggested ways to reduce lawns such as increasing the size of beds that encroach upon the lawns, installing hard-surfaced terraces or patios within the lawn, and mulching large areas for the children's play equipment.
Recent developments in irrigation technology have created one new system which places a grid of weeping hoses under the sod. In this application the water is right at the roots encouraging a deep rooting system that will require infrequent irrigation with no water lost to evaporation. This application would be most appropriate when laying down new sod.
Another alternative is artificial lawn. The Union Democrat featured a lawn of artificial turf on the Coming Home page recently, and I'm aware of the stepped-up advertising for similar products on television. The installation is complex, with several layers of materials under the turf, but once completed you can say good-bye to watering and mowing forever.
If you simply reduce irrigation or cease watering altogether, your lawn will probably die back, coming back to life again in the fall after the rains begin (depending upon the variety of grass). So all is not lost. This, I imagine, is what most of us will do. Remembering the droughts in California during the l976 – l977 seasons we recall the techniques we used to maximize water use for many household and garden requirements. It would be premature to say we are headed in that direction. But we do have some decisions to make right now about how we use water this summer, and 20% less of it than last year. Good luck.
Master gardener Joan Bergsund has written about water conservation in past columns. She has no lawn, but mows the weeds and grasses in the early spring when her property looks like a park. Alas, it doesn't look that way for long.
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