A brown lawn in front of a million dollar house is unappealing when it comes to potential home buyers. It comes with a sense that if the lawn is brown, what else in the house isn’t being cared for. And that kind of sentiment drives down home values.
Recycled Water, with its richness of fertilizer infused water can help you or your neighbors maintain curb appeal, especially in a drought. If you already haul recycled water, now is the time to spread the wealth to your neighbors and help them by watering their front yard while you water yours.
As I’ve written before, for every 1,000 square feet of grass, it needs 625 gallons of water per week, of course this assumes you’ve been keeping your lawn watered in the first place. More will be required if you turned off your sprinklers and the ground is dry.
If your grass still has green shoots on it, you can easily bring it back to full life in as little as 2 weeks – albeit – watering everyday may be required.
In the past month, I’ve unloaded over 2,000 gallons of water on my neighbor’s lawn. Results began to show in as little as 5 days.
The ground was so dry when I first started watering. I set the hose down and unloaded 150 gallons into one spot, expecting to see a larger area or a puddle on the ground when the tank was empty.
Instead, the water had just made a small wet spot and the ground sucked the water right up. I did the same the next time but moved the hose around. It took about 4 trips before the ground wouldn’t absorb the entire tank and would spread to other areas of the lawn.
The run-off problems started when the lawn began to slope towards the street. The lower areas were so dry and the ground so compacted that water would just run-off onto the sidewalk. I had to change my water delivery method, as placing the hose on the ground just wouldn’t cut it anymore.
Enter what I like to call “simulated rain” or the “shower” setting on your garden sprayer combined with a back and forth motion of your wrist. Basically, just mimic what a lawn sprinkler does.
This past week I’ve unloaded around 700 gallons of water on the front part of his lawn. With each passing day, the grass is turning green and beginning to look healthy again.
All for what benefit?
My neighbor hasn’t spent a dime on water for his grass, his front yard is beginning to look more appealing and property values will continue to remain high.
Of course I am doing all the leg work, but I’ll pick up a load of recycled water since I’m in the area nearly every day.
“The grass is always greener…”
There are other options available if your sole purpose is green grass. There are now “lawn painting” companies that will come paint your lawn green with an ‘eco-friendly’ paint.
One such company is called “Lawn Picasso” which will come apply a pigment to your grass to make it appear green, but it only lasts 12 weeks.
For $200 to paint 500 square feet of lawn, which would only need 300 gallons of water a week, you can get your golden brown lawn appear green. For cost comparison – it may cost you less than $100 to do the same by hauling and watering with recycled water.
Stop watering your lawn all together and enjoy that crunchy feeling of dead grass beneath your feet.
If/when you start watering again the ground will be so dry that you’ll need hundreds, if not thousands of gallons of water to get the grass to come back; if it’s not totally dead in the first place. Is that worth the risk versus paying more to get new sod put in later?
Your other more environmentally friendly option is to help keep moisture in your soil and bring in free recycled water and to maintain your green lawn the natural way.
As Lawn Picasso says your home “will boast a beautiful curb appeal with lush green lawns while complying with California water use restrictions”, Recycled Water will do the same by doing it the way nature intended.
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