Water Conservation Matters
Unless you’re completely new to Cache Valley, you may have noticed that we suffer a lot of droughts. This makes sense; we are a desert after all. The average rainfall in this state is really low and as the year gets further away from winter, the drier everything gets. It’s not even hot yet and already Utah is talking about tightening water restrictions. You would think this means that water conservation efforts would be super important. It isn’t always, unfortunately, at least not culturally, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore it. So, what can you do to improve water conservation in Cache Valley? Well, native grasses and other low-water plants might help a lot.
Grass: Utah’s Biggest Water Drinker
According to the Utah Rivers Council, about 70% of Utah’s water use goes towards grass. This means that all other things we need to use water or account for less than one third of our actual water use. Now, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, except there’s not that much water to go around. California routinely catches fire because of its lack of water, for example, so what position are we in to go sucking it all up for ourselves? Might be that it’s time to rethink our habits.
Water Conservation Saves Money
Now, it’s not comfortable to acknowledge this, but a lot of people don’t think about the effects of our behaviors until it starts negatively affecting us. To that, I’d like to draw your attention to just how much water conservation saves money. Utah imports a lot of water from other states, to the tune of billions of dollars worth every year. Not just importing water, but there are also expensive projects to divert rivers and draw water from reservoirs to meet our grass addiction. That’s like, a lot of time and money, maaaaan. It’s also entirely unnecessary. How could we conserve water and also save a lot of money? I suppose we could completely do away with lawns entirely, but not everybody’s going to get on board with that. Nevertheless, rethinking our approach to lawns is still a good idea. Consider native grasses and low-water plants.
Low-Water Lawn Care
We talked about Xeriscaping as an option. That’s one possibility, but not everybody wants to go that extreme. Some people still want a nice-looking patch of grass. Well, if that’s what you want, did you know there are a lot of low-water alternative grasses you can use? With some careful selection of grasses for your lawn, you can significantly decrease the amount of water your lawn needs to survive. The New Utah Gardner blog has a great list of drought-resistant grasses to consider.
Drought-Resistant Grass Qualities
There are some common traits that drought-resistant grasses have in common. Look for the following characteristics: long roots that allow it to recover from extended periods without water, the ability to go dormant if there is too long a period without water, and shortened length to reduce the need to mow. These are the ideal qualities you should look for in grass. As far as rethinking goes, it might be necessary for us to make better use of those dormancy periods, letting the grass go dormant during the hottest months to avoid using water when there’s less to go around.
Check With Your Local Authorities
The one barrier to this is that some cities and plenty of HOAs insist on a lawn that must be nice and green all year long. So, before you go ripping up and resodding your lawn, make sure that the local regulations actually allow it. They should, but this is not always the case, unfortunately. If you really want to save money on your water bill, or just really care about water conservation, then you’ll want to take it up with the people in charge.
Let Us Help
Regardless of what kind of lawn you’re looking to have, it’s going to take a bit of work to maintain it. Whether you’re a business in need of someone to maintain your business yard, or a home looking to repair, replant, or just manage your personal lawn, we can help you out. If you want to redo your yard with the best low-water landscaping practices, we can help you set it up. If you just need some help getting your lawn back to tip-top shape after winter, we can do that, too. Whatever your lawn care needs are, we’re ready to help. Get in touch with us today to set up an appointment to get your lawn looking its best!
