scrubbedexpat091

And here in BC where it rains more days then not (rains about 200 a days a year, 40-70 inches on average depending on location) and we have get restrictions nearly every summer to force us to conserve water..

But we dont have much water storage so kind of makes sense.

Sally Redux

We do try to keep a small lawn alive. A somewhat pointless exercise in this climate.

RICH

I would not call it a lawn, more a grassy area, but this time of year, I can sit out and almost see the grass growing. Rain sun rain sun.I cut it 2 weeks ago on the shortest mower setting. Now it is almost knee high again.

Pulaski

Ya need to replace it with some zoysia! ..... As far south as you are it will do even better than here (shorter winter dormancy, perhaps none?). I can leave the part of my yard that is zoysia unmowed for two months and it won't get to more than 2" tall!

SultanOfSwing

I wouldn't say it is obsessive but I do cut it regularly. Maybe once every 2-3 weeks during the dry periods and around once a week when we've had more rain. Which reminds me, I probably have to cut it tonight.

I don't live in an HOA so that's good. We do have a village ordinance that says you get a ticket if the grass is over 8" in height. I try to cut it often enough so it doesn't get much above 2" though, because it uses less petrol and I'm done quicker. Plus, we have no fences between us and the neighbour to the north, so it looks really stupid when one of us has cut the grass and the other hasn't, which results in a regular cut anyway.

We get lots of dandelions, which get annoying because they grow so quickly and make everything look really untidy. Then there's lots of irregular weedy things in there as well. It was like that when we bought the place - looks fine when it's cut and a bit messy when it isn't but really it's OK. Maybe one day we'll do a weed and feed or reseed or something, just to see what it looks like. I work for a landscaper so I have no shortage of people I can go to for advise (I wouldn't expect them to do anything for me beyond that without charging, of course) and I know my wife has lots of ideas for the yard so we'll get around to it. So far all we've done is plant some perennials and put some rather attractive red mulch by the front of the house. The effect is rather lessened by the rotting wooden retaining wall that we need to replace, though

Amazingly, with no HOA and a probably hard to enforce ordinance on grass height, everyone keeps their yards looking nice without appearing to be overly obsessed with it in my street. It was always something that was done in the summer, cutting the grass and gardening. Our street looks nice but not overdone and because it's an older neighbourhood, retains a bit more character than the newer subdivisions in other towns. I couldn't care less if the neighbours want to spend every waking moment in their yards or just cut the grass every so often and potter about like we do, or let it grow a bit. I don't care if they park their cars in the driveway or their garage (some of them don't have garages) as long as they're not parked in the middle of the road so nobody can get past them.

It's much nicer when we can all do our own thing - nobody gets all riled up and pissed off with each other then. Unless you're a bunch of crims or something, or have a yard full of festering shit stinking up the place, then you deserve it

Boomhauer

I am obessive about getting the stripes parallel/aligned perfectly with no overlap , which is bloody hard to do with a standard riding mower when one encounters curves and confined space for turning. I long for the day I can afford a Walker Z-Turn.

SultanOfSwing

I like the irregular lines on mine. It's as if my lawn is doing an impression of Sheldon, dressed as the Doppler Effect.

Plus, I just don't care enough to make them even. Keeping the grass short is enough for me

Uncle_Bob

Funny enough though the kids don't like playing in rocky native catcus gardens.

I've been here 10 years and never had any water restrictions.

50% of my water bill is sewage fees, taxes and other fees. I don't notice too much of a difference in my bill with watering my back lawn. I don't have a front (ornamental lawn) i have just rockscape. But when all said and done i have a 10,000 gallon play pool that evaporates and needs to be refilled at the rate of 10,000 gallons rate per year. Thats where my watering costs are coming from.

kodokan

Hubby pours this 'liquid pool cover' oil in the pool, that creates a microscopic film and is supposed to cut down on evaporation. Dunno if that's pool snake oil or not - pool and all associated research is his area - but it definitely added several degrees to the temperature when we first added it in April, so I suppose if it's stopping some heat leaving overnight, it's probably stopping some evaporation leaving during the day.

Michael

Doesn't heat cause evaporation?

Pulaski

Only if the water molecules can "jump" out of the water surface. The hotter the water is the more molecules can jump free and get blown away, but if there's a layer of oil it will stop, or at least reduce, the jumping. And that is probably connected to why the water is warmer, it is the water molecules that jump free and get blown away that carry the heat with them, so retaining water that would be lost by evaporation is an effective way to retain heat.

kodokan

Oh I see, so it probably IS helping cut down evaporation. That's nice. It's our first year in the house, so I haven't got a comparison with last year's water usage. I know the people before were scarily negligent about bills - when I asked the water utility roughly what the house ran at when I phoned to register, the CS rep told me the January trash/ gas/ water bill they'd just has was in the $5-600 range!!! We found and fixed a ton of leaks in the sprinkler system when we moved in, and even my July bill was less than $450.

We also switched out dozens and dozens of light bulbs for low energy ones; I shudder what their electric bill was too.

Uncle_Bob

I've not heard of anything like that.
I'm not sure i'd like anything that would make my pool hotter in the summer, my pool water is already edging over 90 degrees and feels like bathwater, whereas i prefer a cooler, crisper temperature in the 70s.

I don't think i can do anything about the evaporation. But on top of that i have to drain and refill every 2-3 years because of the total disolved solids in the pool, the solids that can't evaporate and start to cause maintenance problems. And I'm supposed to be backwashing the filter every month for a few minutes and that could easily be using 500-1000 gallons of water too.

I see so many people that maintain a pool around here because it goes with the house but then they hardly ever use it.

Uncle_Bob

Now this is what I call lawn obsessive

Bink

Yeah that's a step too far!!!
I'm assuming its artificial turf?

If it is its bad enough. If its not, then...!!!!