Do you water your lawn?

[poppy]

I don't water my lawn.  I water the vegetable garden and the herb garden.  I water the shrubs if it's been very dry.  But I don't regularly sprinkle my grass, and I don't really get the point.  I'd rather have a patchy yard.  Watering makes the grass grow too fast anyway! Our yard is small so we don't bother with a lawn service..... mowing is a tedious, hot task that takes valuable weekend time away, IMO. If we didn't have kids who love to play outside, we'd probably just want moss.
 

Wanting to hear different perspectives!

[Julie Smith]

We have in the past. 

 

If it's really dry. But this is our front yard and it's about the size of two parked cars. So we aren't talking about a lot of watering. 

 

This area also includes two trees. 

[Joker]

We have an HOA so have to water the lawn. We have a sprinkler system and it's just automatic.

[SparklyUnicorn]

No, but we don't have much of a lawn anyway.

 

 

[shawthorne44]

Until Dec, I lived in a house with a concrete slab foundation.  The foundation can crack if the soil under it get too dry, so at the minimum I've always "water my house"  

When I was a child my job was to water the lawn.  I hated it with a passion.  grass on my ankles drives me bonkers particularly if it is wet grass.  So, when I bought a house one of the first projects was to install an in-ground sprinkler.  

I've found that a well-maintained lawn with deep roots that isn't cut short  (max lawn mower height) requires less mowing than weeds.  I only water once a week even with no water restrictions and no rain.  

[Ellie]

Yes.

[lllll]

nm

[Annie G]

No.  I hate yard work and watering the lawn will just make me have to mow more often.  As it is, the yard needs to be cut every five days during the summer. 

 

The worst part of being an empty nester is having to do the lawn care myself.  

[fdrinca]

I grew up in the midwest with a huge lawn big vegetable/flower gardens. (Oh, cheap land!!) Vegetables and flowers were kept watered as needed, lawn not. I remember a few drought summers of scratchy grass, but mostly it was green and full of bees. 

 

Now we live in coastal CA, where it typically rains only in the winter. We're *supposed* to water our lawn as per our lease agreement, but with the drought all regulations are off. If we don't water, everything dies.

 

We do have a graywater system set up to water the shrubs and other important plants we don't want to lose. Grass is expendable, but if we have extra water it goes there. 

[Orthodox6]

No.

 

 

[Amira]

Depends on where we live.  In some places you end up with a completely dead lawn if you don't water.  In others, you just get some brown patches sometimes that will come back when it rains again and that's not a big deal to me.  There are a lot of parts of the country where I wouldn't water a lawn. We've always had an automatic sprinkler system if watering was necessary to keep the lawn alive so it was easy to take care of.  We've only ever owned one house though, and if we own again, I would plan the yard very differently than the typical American yard, especially since we'd probably have a yard in a drier part of the US. 

 

[kewb]

No, waste of water. It only encourages the grass to grow which then means someone has to mow it. This leads to 20 minutes of "I did it last, it's your turn." and other assorted bickering.

The lawn returns to full greenery every fall. I am sure my patchy, dead looking lawn ticks off my neighbors with pristine emerald green lawns. Which is simply a bonus.

[Robin M]

Yes we do! Check out save our water as to why we should keep watering

 

http://saveourwater.com/what-you-can-do/tips/landscaping/save-our-water-and-our-trees/#.VaVf3tT1KSo.facebook

[xixstar]

No. I would rather the grass die than waste water and time watering it. I am not a fan of lawns. :)

[SKL]

No.

 

When we bought this house, it had (has) a sprinkler system in the lawn.  They would automatically pop up at a certain time of day and run for a certain length of time.  We turned it off because it seemed stupid to be watering the lawn in the rain.  Never bothered to turn it back on again.

 

Usually we get enough rain that our lawn doesn't die.  If it gets brownish sometimes, I'm OK with that.  I guess if it got really bad we'd water just to get through that period, but most years that doesn't happen.

[Carrie12345]

Only when throwing new grass seed.

We don't live in a dry climate, and our lawn is for kid/pet/bonfire usage, not for looks.

[Annie G]

No, waste of water. It only encourages the grass to grow which then means someone has to mow it. This leads to 20 minutes of "I did it last, it's your turn." and other assorted bickering.

The lawn returns to full greenery every fall. I am sure my patchy, dead looking lawn ticks off my neighbors with pristine emerald green lawns. Which is simply a bonus.

 

Man, I wish you were my neighbor. 

[Jenn121]

We are in CA and have drought restrictions in effect. I water our veggies daily and the roses and bushes once a weeks if I remember.

[Cinder]

We have in the past to keep the landscaping alive. We're in an HOA community too so we're *supposed* to have green grass. But the last few years it has rained enough to keep the grass green and growing like crazy.

[kroe1]

I live in a neighborhood where underground sprinkler systems that go on automatically at a certain time are mandated. Everyone has thick, luscious lawns of St. Augustine grass. Well worth it.

[BlessedMom]

Yes. We have an automatic sprinkler system with timers that water during the night.

[ScoutTN]

Nope. It is mostly weeds anyway. We do water the garden and flowers on occasion. Lots of rain here this summer though.

[ScoutTN]

Nope. It is mostly weeds anyway. We do water the garden and flowers on occasion. Lots of rain here this summer though.

[gingersmom]

I like my green watered lawn. :)

[ScoutTN]

Nope. It is mostly weeds anyway. We do water the garden and flowers on occasion. Lots of rain here this summer though.

[wintermom]

Depends on what climate you live in and what condition you want your lawn in. I'm sure that in most cases, regular watering would be benefitial, whether that comes in the form of rain or artificial means. Where I live, it rains frequently so I don't have to water the lawn. I water the vegetables, herbs and potted flowers.

[Debbi in Texas]

No we don't water. Dh has a hard job in the heat and growing grass would just make more work for him. Lawns are not important to either of us. We do put water in the bird bath.

[QueenCat]

Depends on how dry it is..... most summers it isn't necessary but in a drought, yes. I want to keep the yard from being too dry so that fire can't spread as easily. The fire dept lets us know when we're at a point that we should do that. We are in an HOA community but it only regulates how long grass can get (and it's a pretty high limit) not how low or how green it can be.

[PIE!]

When we lived in places where it needed watering or it would die, we watered. But now we live somewhere where we don't even have a hose hook up, let alone sprinklers. It rains several times a week, so there is no reason to.

[Tsuga]

No. Far too expensive. I can't see us joining an HOA ever for this reason--I get that for some it works but for me it is too much other people telling me what I should spend my money on.

 

The grass dies nearly every summer. This summer it is deader than most summers.

 

I want clover but he doesn't so now we just have dead grass. Our plan for when we get old is to have a proper garden with edible plants and shrubs. Right now we have some of that but the lawn is there for kids to play on.

[Lady Florida.]

No. It's mostly green weeds anyway with a bit of grass here and there. Lawns aren't right for Florida. It's one of those things northern transplants brought with them when they first populated the state, and it just doesn't make sense for our climate. Fortunately HOAs can no longer insist on a specific type of grass or even any kind of lawn, thanks to the Florida-Friendly Landscaping law. Some communities are even banning front lawns. Some are approving front yard vegetable gardens. It's long overdue.

[Shellydon]

No.  DH is ardently against watering a lawn.  He is a water engineer and feels it is incredibly wasteful and will likely be outlawed in the near future.

[Laura Corin]

No.  In dry years it goes yellow in summer (this is pretty rare) but it goes back to green in winter.

[redsquirrel]

Nope. I've never lived in an area where it was necessary. I don't even think about it.

 

I do own a sprinkler, but that was for the kids to play in when they were little. It hasn't come out in years. I think we still have a hose...?

[FaithManor]

No. We would not choose to use water resources for this purpose. I also do not water decorative plants very often at all, but will water the blackberries, grapes, apple trees, and dwarf cherry when necessary. The vegetable garden on the other hand sees watering whenever prudent since we preserve a lot of the harvest.

 

We do not live in an HOA. As a matter of fact, this town is unincorporated so there are very, very few rules.

[littlebug42]

Nope.  We only have a small lawn but don't really care what it looks like.  we keep it mowed.  Also, dh does all of his mother's lawn work so that usually takes priority as it is much more time consuming.  I am longing for the day when our kids are out of the house and we can move downtown into a loft and not have to worry about another lawn. 

[MysteryJen]

No. We have a very small front lawn and no HOA. We water pots and roses sometimes when absolutely necessary. I like lawns, but watering them, especially in a dry climate, very wasteful of a limited resource.

[Butter]

Yes, because if we don't have a nice, healthy, green lawn the HOA will fine us.  This included while we were in a drought (I live in San Antonio Texas).  Xeriscaping is forbidden by the HOA rules.  It annoys the crap out of me how much water is wasted on lawns here.

[gracefor5]

Not any more. I live in So. Cal and they're getting pretty testy about water usage. It sucks but there it is.

[QueenCat]

No. Far too expensive. I can't see us joining an HOA ever for this reason--I get that for some it works but for me it is too much other people telling me what I should spend my money on.

 

We've always been in HOA neighborhoods. None of them ever dictated lawn watering. Only maximum grass heights, which really were good, to keep varmints out.

[redsquirrel]

For those of you who say you get fined for not watering etc...is the fine really that big? It might cost less to pay the fine than the cost of the water to keep a lawn green. Even if it breaks even, it might be worth it just to save the water.

[JenneinCA]

No. We are in a serious drought with water restrictions everywhere. Officially we can water on Monday and Thursday for 15 minutes in the early morning or late evening. Most people here have brown lawns.

[Pawz4me]

Only when we've put out seed. But we spent a LOT of time researching before we did our yard. We went with a hybrid type of grasss that grows extremely well in our climate. Our yard generally looks like a golf course w/o any need to water. :)

[The Girls' Mom]

Nope.  The cows across the street don't really care ;)

 

We did water some in Texas, but we lived in a nice neighborhood then and felt like we had to.

[Joker]

For those of you who say you get fined for not watering etc...is the fine really that big? It might cost less to pay the fine than the cost of the water to keep a lawn green. Even if it breaks even, it might be worth it just to save the water.

Even with using our automatic sprinklers to water our lawn, our water bill is rarely ever more than $75/month. It's not worth it to me to find out how much that fine would be.

[redsquirrel]

Even with using our automatic sprinklers to water our lawn, our water bill is rarely ever more than $75/month. It's not worth it to me to find out how much that fine would be.

 

Wow, we pay that much quarterly.

[Mergath]

No. We live in MN and have zero drought, so the grass is green without any watering besides rain.

[Heatherwith4]

No. We have a couple of acres, so it would be a costly thing to do.

[Bluegoat]

No.  I water food plants, and if I plant a new shrub or something I water it the first year.  After that ornamental plants are on their own.  I use rain barrels for veg but they don't hold enough to provide for lawn as well.

 

Typically we don't have long dry periods here, so you don't tend to see really brown lawns - some go a little dormant in August, especially if they are cut too short which is pretty common.  My lawn is about 50% clover anyway so it stays green - which is actually one reason why lawn mixes normally included clover up until the 50s or 60s.

 

I don't like ornamental lawns much anyway and get rid of more of my front lawn every year.  It's more of a cottage garden - flowers and vegetables.  Next year I am adding a strawberry bed.  A big bonus is that our bird, butterfly, and bee population has soared since we bought the house.  The back lawn is smaller than it was but I won't get rid of it as the dog needs a place to run around.

 

[Butter]

For those of you who say you get fined for not watering etc...is the fine really that big? It might cost less to pay the fine than the cost of the water to keep a lawn green. Even if it breaks even, it might be worth it just to save the water.

 

$20 per day from our HOA.  It's MUCH cheaper to pay for water.