"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
s.com...


Not the answer you were looking for: get rid of the lawn. Manicured,
well-watered lawns will soon be a thing of the past, along with leaded
gasoline, gas-guzzling automobiles and carefree consumption. Get used to
(and ready for) the new world of water shortages.

It depends on where you live -- after two years of drought here, if you poke
a stick in the ground, water comes gushing out. All the houses in this area
have artesian wells and some leave them running 24/7, in order to have
fountains and running streams in their landscaping. I had to dig a wide
hole and pump from it in order to drain an new 18" trench that an
electrician needed to use for outside wiring. None of our trees have tap
roots because of the high water table, and the predominant species is
cypress swamp. Although the government has a two-day-a-week watering
restriction because of the drought, no one pays any attention to it,
including the local government.

Actually, I've turned off my irrigation system because the daily afternoon
storms keep everything well watered. I think the point of your comment
ought not to be that someone is going to start controlling yet another
aspect of our lives, it is that homeowners ought to be intelligent enough to
have a landscape that fits into the local climate, and the local government
ought to be smart enough to allow the landscaping to suite the local needs.
That's particularly a problem in retirement areas, in which people come from
other areas and try to impose their old standards on the new area, just
because they're used to the look of turfgrass, or plantless lakes, and don't
understand how their new home differs.

It may be that in your area gravel and cactus are the preferred landscape
and 55 mph the self-imposed speed limit. A yard lacking vegetation here
would look silly and quickly be overtaken by weeds and mildew -- it's not a
suitable climate for that austerity. Similarly, with few people, lots of
wide open spaces and long distances to drive, someone trying to hold to 55
mph is going to be blown off the road by 99% of the other vehicles.