Water Days

Jack Breese shared these thoughts and I think they are very necessary at this time:

Everyone is aware that Central Texas is in extreme drought conditions. Recently I had a field trip as part of my Texas Master Naturalist class to Aquarena Springs in San Marcos. Amazingly it sometimes takes years for water from rainfalls in the Hill Country to wind its way through the limestone aquifers to emerge from the springs in San Marcos. In 2007 with all the rain we had, 250 million gallons a day was being pumped out of the springs. What is disturbing is that last year the rate had declined to 180 million gallons a day and this year it is down to 80 million gallons.

If you haven't noticed the recent newsletter from Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation or the articles in the paper, we have been asked to curtail watering our lawns to Thursday an Sunday for even numbered addresses and odd number addresses to water on Tuesday and Saturday.

Homeowners are concerned about their grass dying, but with the minimal watering requested, the grass will continue to grow and if it does seem to brown, it is merely going dormant until it receives greater rainfall. I have buffalo grass planted in some parts of my backyard and have not watered it once this summer. It was as dry as straw until we received some rain 10 days ago and it has come back green. Granted buffalo grass is developed t be a hardy grass, but zoisia and St. Augustine will get along fine until we can afford to water with increased frequency.

Folks, we need to work together to protect and conserve our natural resources. I would like to see everyone in The Preserve try to do their part . . . even the ones who have private wells.

Jack Breese

Thanks Jack, this is more important than many of us realize. Also, Jack promised me we would have sufficient rain over the next few months to make our lawns happy.

Another reminder: if you are watering in the heat of the day you are "cooking" your grass and losing a larger amount of water to evaporation than if you water during the evening hours, or early morning. I know we have been guilty of not making enough effort to control our watering - as our water bill shows. My excuse - the darn water system won't do what I tell it to do. So that's another idea there - have your sprinkler system checked and set. When we lived in Austin the water utility would send out someone to regulate for us - they checked pressure, adjusted the sprinklers, etc. There are exceptions - for instance, we need to water the veggie garden at least every other day but the grass can live just fine with 2 waterings a week.