I'm A Lawn, Not A Lake

I live in a little city outside of Dallas. It's beautiful, well organized and highly regulated. It's highly policed, too, but the copious speed traps are another story.

There are strict rules about when to water your lawn - typically, it's not permitted 10am - 6pm. Sometimes, watering is even more scheduled than that. As in: houses with street addresses ending with even numbers can water on Mondays and Thursdays, odd numbers can water on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Fines for violating water regulation can be very high - up to thousands of dollars.  And if there's water running off your lawn into the street, you might get a visit from a regulator when they patrol (which they do - often).

Some might find this kind of oversight a little too 1984. While that might be true in some instances, if the city bolsters its budget through violators of water regulation, I'm okay with that. Texas is DRY in summer.   No one has any business wasting water.

As my sons and I took our weekly visit to the public library today, I saw the above sign posted in the Town Hall.

It's a good thing to keep in mind. If you've got water running down your driveway and into the street when you water your lawn, there are things you can do to make your watering more efficient.  For instance, if you've got a programmable watering system, try running all heads through a few five minute cycles instead of running each for 15 minutes straight.  The ground will absorb the water better, wasting less down the storm drain.  Also, put a rain sensor on that programmable watering system.  There's no sense in watering in the rain.