Sounds like more communistic ways to take control of people. All this homeowners associations and condo association crap is for the birds. You should be able to do what you want on your own property!! You are already paying a mortgage on the property and property taxes, yet they try to run what you can and cannot do with the place... i.e. when and how to water, what to plant, what kinds of animals you can own, etc, etc. I would never, ever consider buying a place where someone dictates what I can and cannot do on it. Its like you are a glorified renter.

Back to the subject, I think it will be hard to keep it moist with a hose end sprinkler... you will have to walk on it, which would not be a good idea for the seedlings. I'd say set a timer up to go off at 2 am or something where everyone is asleep. Have it go off at 1 am for 5 mins, 2 am for 5 mins, 3 am for 5 mins, and 4 am for 5 mins. And wait til Sept 1 to seed so it don't dry out during the day then. That should work. Here's to claiming back your rights!

Thanks wxman-

Unfortunately the water ban was for our protection. The community well an system was severly overwhelmed. My pressure is OK but at some of the higher elevations near me it is horrible. Our infrastructure was so bad that we had to redo every main line for 200+ houses with all new curb boxes in order for us to be up to code.

Looks like I'll have dead grass for another month in the front yard. (with treches dug for the mater main, curb box, house service line, and unapproved sprinkler system)

I hope it is a late winter like last year. Thanks

2500sf is nothing. You could do that with a couple of hose end sprinklers or soaker hoses and nobody would be the wiser. Not that I'm encouraging you to break the rules or anything.

You should be able to do what you want on your own property!!
Yes, like dig a well and use your OWN water on your grass instead of endangering the supply for an entire neighborhood.
Watering restrictions wouldn't exist in most places if people didn't insist on living on a golf course.

GrassMan, I overseeded very late last year up here, north of Lake Ontario (we get some warm air from that lake, too) and the grass did just fine. I don't think it would hurt to hang in there and wait for some cooler weather and/or rain. Don't count on the work being done on Oct 1, though. That comment was probably an estimate.

I wouldn't risk getting caught watering. Running your automatic system for short periods overnight could end up with a neighbor waking up to see this and then reporting that you ran the sprinkler "all night". Not only would you be in deep doo-doo with the association (which you chose when you moved there), but you might end up the neighborhood pariah for compromising the water level.

I have about 2000 feet to water and just found out yesterday that two oscillating sprinklers run from a cheap two hose manifold screwed onto the house bib gives me just about perfect coverage, and I only get about 6gpm from that bib which is on the low end. Add a cheap timer and voila. You may be able to do something similar. One thing to consider, I suspect this will work best using identical sprinklers and identical lengths of hose to try to get even coverage.

Tell them you can wait until mid-September but no later. You will only need to apply 1/4 inch of water per day for that first two or three weeks, and that 1/4 inch must be supplied in two separate increments each day. Then tell them if you're not allowed, you will have to have a dead, brown lawn with nothing but weeds growing until next September. Not true but tell them anyway. They won't want anyone's property looking that bad for an entire year. Let us know what they say.

I just have stipulated that with your inground system, those two separate increments will only have to be maybe 5 minutes each - 10 minutes per day.

I agree that you won't have any trouble keeping up, using the hose and hand watering, or (AFTER germination) using sprinklers on that hose.

If you need to avoid prime water usage times, like 730PM when the kids are taking baths, then you do. Or 730AM when all the office workers are taking showers prior to going to work.

But that hose isn't going to be running all day, and the fact is, it's not that much water, overall. The trick to getting germination is to keep the seedbed MOIST BUT NOT WET. You don't want any puddles to form, because that will cause the seed to float up, and you've likely just lost that seed.

Light, frequent misting is optimal. Get as close to that as you can. But starting at one end of 2500 sq feet, with a hose and nozzle, and moving to the other end, misting as you go, doesn't take that long, nor use much water.

Go for it.

I think that might fly Bestlawn. I'll also be keeping an eye on the forcast over the next month and a half. If It looks favorable I may try to seed late Aug at the earliest. I have noticed some people dragging hoses around a bit this year trying to water seeded areas dur to the water line construction. Evev though it is effectively the same thing, I have a feeling they might make a stink if it was an inground system as opposed to a hose-> sprinkler setup.

I will ask about 5 - 10 min watering.

My last house was in a sub-division which had a home owner's association. First time in my life I lived in a place that had one. Would not let me build any outbuildings not even something to keep my lawn tractor in.

Then they came out with a rule that you were not permitted to cut your grass on Saturday night or on Sunday at all. Then this guy who really wanted to build a "Shed" became president of the home owner's association and changed the rule that you could build a shed as long as it matched the styling of your house and was approved by the association. So this Retired Military dude builds a brick shed that was as nice as his house. Had to spend $10K on his shed, I swear.

What a bunch of crap. I sold the place for $340K and moved back to the country. I put up a very nice looking shed that would not offend anybody that I bought from a big box store for around $1200.