And you didn't grab copies for each of us? Shame on you! LOL!

Cool find!

;)

I don't know if I'd trust recommendations from those people. I know from experience that one or two days a week is not enough for a st. augustine lawn unless there is supplemental rainfall. In the old days, I could chase away weeds and gradually thicken up the lawn with frequent watering (and other care). With the restrictions, that's impossible. The only way to get a lush lawn is to install one, and then you'll be okay for a little while, but it'll gradually decline unless you sneak around and water more often than they allow.

I am seriously... seriously... considering lawn alternatives. With the watering restrictions, I can practically watch the lawn succumb in real time.

Well, to be fair, they're the District Water Management, not the District Lawn Management. They're more concerned about the water tables and conditions of the lakes and rivers. They don't claim that watering two days out of the week is all that is needed to have a lush, thriving lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood, they claim that two days a week is all a lawn really needs to survive. And they're not wrong.

When I was made aware of the watering restrictions last year, I made sure to water ever Wednesday and Saturday, in the mornings for about 20-30 minutes per area and it worked for my small yard. The grass grew, the new seed came up and filled in bare spots and I only had to mow about once a week. Did I have weeds? Sure, but I didn't have a very strong lawn care program going either (still don't actually). I was just trying to keep it green (as in alive, not 'earth-friendly green'). Once the evening rains started in June, I didn't have to water the grass any more because the rain was doing it for me. There were a few times during July and August where my grass got a little dry, but it never died on me.

The point of this handbook is not to illustrate how to take care of your lawn, but more to find better substitutes for a lawn so that you don't have to water 3-4 times a week to keep it green. Other Florida Landscaping books I've been reading have also been saying that in reality, keeping a large, well manicured lawn in Florida is just rather impractical and neither ecologically or economically efficient.

And before someone gets offended, I'm not meaning to come across as preachy, I really am not. I am very much a "live and let live, do as you will" type person. I'm just trying to explain that while you might not get the exact results you want with their suggestions (the nearby community of The Villages would falter and fail on the suggested watering/fertilizing programs), it doesn't make the suggestions/restrictions necessarily wrong.

TheTradition, I have St. Augustine (Floratam) in my yard, and water one a week in the winter and twice a week during the warm/hot months. My lawn is doing fine.
I use reclaimed water. St. Petersburg recommends reclaimed water use at not more than three times, but I have never had to use it that much. Water less frequently but deeply. I also use organic fertilizer, and at less than recommended rates.
Will try to upload a photo.

Hi Shear,

I managed to pick up a copy for you today. See link below.

See page 22 for the same page as Leekle's photograph above.

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a link that might be useful: Waterwise Florida Landscapes

Every situation is different, and if you're able to keep the lawn that nice with once a week watering, then consider yourself lucky.

The problem with the way we're currently regulating lawn watering is that it promotes over use. That's right, you read that correctly. I use MUCH more water with the restrictions than I did before.

Before the restrictions, I'd water only when necessary. If I saw the grass was starting to wilt, I'd water that zone. If another zone was doing fine, I wouldn't water. I prefer to keep my water bill low.

However, with the restrictions, I have no way of knowing which zones might need water over the next week, so all the zones get water, because that's the only time I'm allowed to do it.

Accordingly, I use more water with the restrictions than I did before.

A smarter way to do this is with progressively increasing water rates. The first 5,000 gallons (or whatever makes sense), would be charged at the "normal" per-gallon rate. But as consumption increases beyond that, the per-gallon rate would rise. The more you use, the more you pay per-gallon. This would be a strong disincentive for over-watering. Water can be applied when needed rather than only on arbitrary days of the week decided upon by some unelected water management board. And no "water cops" are needed to patrol neighborhoods in the middle of the night looking for violators. People who overwater will pay when the bill comes.

The extra revenue could be applied toward buiding desalination plants, further reducing the pressure on our lakes, rivers and aquifers.

I know, I know... my idea will never go anywhere. It's too reasonable and makes too much sense. Draconian "Saturdays between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. ONLY" rules are easier for people to understand, I guess. And water cops need jobs, too.

I've actually SEEN the water-cops driving through my neighborhood going 2 mph craning their necks and looking over fences to ensure that no one was watering anything.

Any water-cops would have a field day with the owners of the park I live in. When I first started into gardening, I learned about the water restrictions and asked the manager at the time just which zone we fell under (Southwest or St. Johns) and he said St. Johns. He went on to explain that we while we don't technically fall under them, because the park runs it's own pump/septic system, that we are still supposed to follow the restriction times... though he personally didn't enforce them.

The park owners, who live at the entrance to the park, run their sprinklers all-day every day. I guess the upside is that it's a trailer park and not many people who live here really take much pride in their yards. Sure they plant a bush here and a flower there, but they don't really work in their little yards. So in the end, I guess the park owners' use of water is really rather minimal considering so few others in the park bother. Still, I think if an authority type decided to take note of the amount of water they run over their yard, a fine of some sort would probably be issued.

I honestly don't believe many people follow the restrictions.

And why should they? In my area, Lake Okeechobee is perfectly managed to provide nonstop water to US Sugar. They have no restrictions. They are causing ridiculous environmental damage by preventing the southerly flow of water from the Everglades, so that in high water periods they dump billions of gallons through St Lucie and decimate the ecosystem. Isn't what's good for the goose good for the gander?

Yes that's right, we dump billions of gallons every summer and fall yet have ridiculous once a week watering restrictions during the spring. Lake Okeechobee is kept artificially low because repairs to the herbert hoover dike are so underfunded and mismanaged that theyre going to take DECADES! So the root issue, at least in my part of Florida is poor water management strategy, coupled with a ridiculous environmental permitting system that makes inprovements nearly impossible. I could accept this situation if the pain was spread equally, but it's not.

I'm supposed to let my lawn die (something that adds probably 10-15k to the value of my home and is a significant part of my net worth), while the sugar cane fields and the farms get to do whatever they want??? Funny how the individual suffers as big business does what it wants.

And to add insult to injury, I bet the sugar fields pay comparatively little in water management district taxes since they're "agricultural." Even though the entire system is set up for them! Talk about crony capitalism and corruption.

Call me a scofflaw, but if my grass needs water I'm going to water it. Flame away...

Personally, I'm not going to rake anyone over the coals for what they do. When I see the Villages running their sprinklers on a Monday morning while it's raining, I can't rightly blame someone else for wanting to water their lawns when they feel they need it. While I don't agree with what the park owners here do, I'm not going to picket their yard with signs berating them for messing up the aquifers and water table. What would be the point?

In the case of the Villages, they (the management) claim that they only run the sprinklers while it's raining if the water retention ponds are in danger of flooding, but I've been in the area when it's been raining, the sprinklers were running and the water retention ponds and Lake Sumter were 'dangerously' low (Lake Sumter has been low for some time now). I would be more likely to raise racket over their practices than I would over an individual land owner's. But again, what would the point be? Money rules all.

In the case of the water management districts, I don't think it's just the water use they're worried about. It's the fertilizer use. In my latest issue of Florida Gardening, they mention that a study was being done to see which type of neighborhoods were more efficient in water/fertilizer usage by the types of road-side they had, swales or curbs. They ultimately had to remove one particular neighborhood from the study because a single person was so over-fertilizing her Rose Garden that it made the numbers sky-rocket, suggesting there was something wrong with the measuring equipment, but it was her gardens that was doing it.

For a further example:

The park owners here, while they run their sprinklers almost non-stop, they don't fertilize, ever. So they're really not causing too much chemical run-off problems. But then you look at the Villages (corporate, not individual home-owners), they have maintenance crews out there every week constantly spraying fertilizers and pesticides. So not only are they over-watering, but they're constantly sending chemicals down to the water-table. But I think their over-watering is going to eventually bite them in the tuckus. Last summer they had two, maybe three, sink-holes open up. They got lucky as the two that I know of opened under retention ponds. It's only a matter of time before another sinkhole swallows a home or two. Once that starts happening, America's Friendliest Home Town could start dwindling in residents.

Plus, I believe that if you tell someone they shouldn't do something, they will do it anyways, and quite possibly more often, just out of spite.

The Tradition, I agree with you 100%. Just to add, I hate it when my time to water comes the wind blows a lot of the water away.

This is an example of why we have water restrictions. This is a picture of our boat house facing the northern part of our lake. It is the same level as the water table. We are about 8 ft. below the average level now. Those bushes should be lake. We used to ski in it.

Sorry to see that Judy. The same thing happened with Lake Murray near Columbia, SC. Water levels were severely low. Every time there was a good series of rain storms or winter run-off from NC to increase water levels, residents took that as a sign that it was okay to go back to watering as normal. I haven't been up there in 20+ years, but my dad is an avid bass fisherman in the area and says that all the lakes and rivers up there are still super low, even though they're dam controlled man-made lakes. Lake Murray itself tends to be 5-7 feet below nominal.

I don't know. Like I said, I wouldn't rake anyone over the coals for their practices, but sometimes I just can't understand how some people simply shrug it all off and say, "Well, at least MY yard looks good." To each their own, I guess.

No one is arguing that everybody should be allowed to waste water. My argument is that the restrictions, as currently implemented, are a poor way of addressing the problem.

I have to get water permits through the water management districts and last year they had major cuts in their budgets and staff reductions. Maybe they will improve. I have no problem with the restrictions since I have field bahia and don't water it. In the winter it's brown as it should be and as soon as the summer rains come, it's green again. I've never fertilized it in 17 years. I do have a problem with St. John's letting that water company in Lake Co. pump out our water to bottle and sell.Just think how much the theme parks and resorts are using. I'm a native and have seen how much damage has been done by the growth of the state and people ignoring the damage they are doing to it. The runoff from these lush green overfertilized and overwatered yards are killing our lakes and rivers.The low water tables are causing with the springs to flow slower than they should and not to mention SINKHOLES!.