Watering Lawn

[WalterHalter]

Each time I see a lush lawn,I wish mine looked like that!

Then I remember how many chemicals It needs and glasses of pure drinking water that will never be as pure again.I don't think they're making anymore noncontaminated ground water, are they?

How much would it cost me to have a natural landscape that does't irratate the lush-lawners in my neighborhood?We are on sand.When I water, the grass gets a good shower but through the sand it goes.Wish it were more like a bathtub.

When we fish,do we ever think about where all that water has been?

Did we have anything to do with the condition it's in?

[KLoopBinaction]

I think ground conditions vary through out the metro woodbury (rocks) ham lake, blaine (sand) shakopee hit and miss sand clay

apple valley ROCK.

where I live it"s all clay and watering every 4th day works, city water usage diffinetly an issue, I have a well so electricity is my concern.

I hate mowing but like the looks of a green yard, chemicals na. dandlion season done. creeping charlie is killing me hmmm chemicals? na charlie is green!

[chasineyes]

I'm guessing this is a METRO thing. Growing up in rural mn we never watered nor did ANYONE else. Also in my sisters development in a suburb in Chicago, no one has sprinkler systems.

Watering your lawn in fine, but never, ever, let me here you [PoorWordUsage] about not having money. So who just got their $300 bill for may?????.......

[MNice]

I work in a TC suburb, population around 20,000. Winter water use around 3.5 million gallons per day, summer about 9 million. What a waste of a precious resource.

[Duffman]

Hey Jeff, don't you have a daughter or two? I'm willing to bet that my households winter water consumption rate doesn't even come close to yours.

And thank you rain gods for saving me some money for a tad, keep it up and fill up some bodies of water around here.

[MNice]

Good point Bret, 3 daughters + 1 wife + female dog = me outnumbered!! #1 daughter is one her own, but the other two still do "hour showers".

Hope all is well!

jeff

[Dotch]

I'm guessing this is a METRO thing. Growing up in rural mn we never watered nor did ANYONE else. Also in my sisters development in a suburb in Chicago, no one has sprinkler systems.

Watering your lawn in fine, but never, ever, let me here you [PoorWordUsage] about not having money. So who just got their $300 bill for may?????.......

I too have to smile when I see all the comments about watering, fertilization, lawn care services, etc. To each their own. There is quite a disparity between what's acceptable in the metro or in town vs. out in the country. I do like to knock the dandelions out once in awhile (they gum up the mower deck) but that season's about over. Heck, I drive the tractor and other equipment on parts of it and have a nasty road cut to mow so as long as it isn't looking like I need to cut it with a haybine, I could really give a rip what the neighbors think of my lawn. Besides, my trees look way better than theirs anyway...

[FishingIdiot]

I'm curious as to why people who don't care how their lawn or their neighbors lawn looks, would comment or even read the "Lawn & Garden" forum.

[Dotch]

See the little wink? We're trying to keep it light and bring a little levity to these threads. There definitely is a metro/rural difference. I'm relying on the 3+ inches of rain the past week to water my clay loam soil lawn

I mow the lawn once a week because it's all the time I have allotted for it, just like a lot of the other working schleps on this board. In addition, I frequently drive 75 miles to mow my mothers large lawn on weekends so it doesn't look like a hay field and let my own go, trying to catch up on mowing it in the dark after work. Thank goodness for lights! When I put the mower away at 11 p.m., I wish my lawn looked like former DNR Pheasant Wildlife Biologist Al Berner's lawn: Native prairie grasses and forbs. Never needs mowing. Burning perhaps... What my neighbors or others do as I said, is their business.

Why do I comment? Because I have something to offer, technical information here primarily if you read some of my posts. Gardening for almost half a century, a Soils major and an Agronomy major from the U, a year of courses short of an Entomology major (what I have entomology friends for) having worked with a couple dozen MN crops including some of the horticultural ones, owning and operating a company that dispenses crop management advice, nutrient/manure management advice, soil fertility advice, variety selection info, IPM programs, etc., for nearly 30 years, as well as integrating our own small farming operation into lawn and garden practices, I feel I probably am qualified to speak my mind. I like to read the Lawn and Garden threads because I enjoy picking up on some of the info others have to offer as well. Some is occasionally incorrect but I usually refrain from calling people out on it unless it is blatantly out of line or dangerous. That and there are some pretty nice people on here. Trying to get along with them goes a long way towards making these threads and the entire forum a lot more fun.

[LwnmwnMan2]

.... I frequently drive 75 miles to mow my mothers large lawn on weekends so it doesn't look like a hay field and let my own go, trying to catch up on mowing it in the dark after work. ....

It's somewhat funny. If you all saw my lawn, you'd never believe I'm in the industry.

At best it gets mowed 10 times / year, usually when the guys have time to do it, or I leave a mower home on the weekend so my dad comes over and hacks it down.

[wishing for walleyes]

When i had to push mow my lawn you could see the rocks flying.I tried to turn it brown.Now i have a couple of riders and i just about have it looking like a golf course.Only watered this year because i over seeded.I just mow it high.

[FishingIdiot]

Well, I guess I got put in my place.

"See the little wink? We're trying to keep it light and bring a little levity to these threads"

I think you can take my comments in the same spirit in which your comments were posted.

[LovenLifeGuy]

On the other side of this topic. Is too much water bad? I did a little patch work earlier in the year and put a sprinkler on it yesterday because we never got the rain they said we were going to the past couple days. The problem is I fell a sleep and forgot about it. It is a sunny area but I put a good 7 hrs of water on it. I know, what a waste

[DTro]

Well here my 2 cents on the issue. If had my choice and lived out in the sticks, I wouldn’t really care a whole lot about my lawn. But……since I live in a developed suburban neighborhood with close proximity to other houses, I mostly keep my yard looking nice out of respect to them and hope they would do the same. You know the whole do onto others deal?

Our house sits on some of the finest sand in the state I kid you not, pure beach sand. I can’t even dig a small hole without it collapsing on me. What that means is that it takes a lot of water to not only keep it looking healthy and alive, but it takes a lot of water just to keep it living. I am embarrassed at how much water that takes, but I see it as one of those expenses of owning a house. Of course if things were to get tight for me, that is one spot I could really cut back on, at this point, however I choose to water frequently to keep it from not only dying, but to not create an eyesore and help maintain the overall appearance of the area.

Remember, the best natural weed killer is a healthy lawn