It's so depressing. As you drive around the city you see brown lawns and dying trees everywhere. The drought has become very real. We're on a water budget based on our water usage in 2013 and because we used a lot of water that year, our mandated use this year is not so bad. We've managed to put a lot of water in 'the bank' and haven't felt the pinch as much as others. Even so, our backyard is brown; dead lawn. Plus three dead trees; birches that were depending on lawn watering for their own use. The front yard, a 12'x20' piece of greenery survives with a few brown patches. The parkway grass is dead. Very few homeowners have bitten the bullet and ripped out their lawns to plant drought resistant plants. Those that have done it now have nice looking yards. I've never been a fan of lawns (my wife likes the green but is resigned to the change) and won't miss it. We are waiting for our daughter, the nursery owner, to recommend a landscape architect for our backyard. In the meantime it's very sad to see.
It does sound sad to me too. I wonder where all of this is heading
ReplyDeleteI think the rains will come on occasion, but I don't expect the snow (our water for summer) to ever increase again. We lived in Lassen Co. for 11 years---ending 26 years ago. We had huge snowfalls every year. My on still there and hasn't seen snow, deep enough to plow, in the last 5 years.
DeleteHere, I think we will adapt to the desert it once was and landscape as needed to fit the semi arid conditions we will have. Then it will look better. My mind needs that.
I meant to type .... "My son still lives there"... and "seen snow, snow deep enough"
DeleteWe have a second home in Tucson, Arizona and it has natural landscaping, no grass and pretty much xeriscape planting. I like the natural look around a house. The farm, here in Oregon, has no lawn either. We fenced off around the house for flowers and shrubs but beyond that, it's sheep pasture. They keep it mowed down because up here in my part of Oregon, so far we still have enough rain for pastures. We'll be in trouble if that changes with raising cattle and sheep.
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