Loading…
14
Watched my neighbor's lawn go from dead brown to green in 6 weeks, and now I'm not sure if it's a win
My next door neighbor in Phoenix stopped watering his yard back in March when the city hiked rates, and by June his lawn was straight up dead, just dirt and crispy patches. Then he put in this drip system and some kind of desert seed mix, spent about $400 on it, and 6 weeks later the whole thing is green again but with native grasses that barely need water. On one hand it looks way better and he says his bill dropped by $60 a month, but on the other hand I keep wondering if we should all just accept brown yards instead of trying to keep anything green in a desert. Is switching to low water plants actually real action or are we just patching the problem so we don't have to think about it?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_sean21d ago
Been there with the yard thing, and honestly the answer is both. Brown dirt in Phoenix is not some noble sacrifice, it just turns into dust and heat, so the green you're seeing is a real gain. But the important part is what he planted, because if those are actual desert natives his water use keeps dropping for years while a plain fescue lawn stays a money pit. Your worry about patching the problem is fair though, since the real issue is why we ever put thirsty grass in a place that gets 8 inches of rain a year. What he did is not a patch, it is fixing the original mistake, and the rest of us are just slow to catch up.
5