Have you ever thought about how much water your lawn takes? Depending on the size of your yard, the climate you are in and the type on plants and grass you have, your water bill could potentially be one of the biggest expenses that you have for your dwelling.
In areas such as the south west of the United States (Nevada, Arizona etc) growing grass is in plain words HARD! Where I live, rain can get pretty rare at times. You can have dry spells that last for 3 months before the first trickle of rain.
Now apart from wanting to be Green, economically frugal I also happen to be quite lazy. Standing outside watering the yard can become an ordeal and dont get me started on the Texas sized weeds. keeping your yard weed free, fire ants free and green is a full time job.
Now how do I avoid all of this? How do I have a green yard, not need to water much, keep my bills low and not have to deal with the horrible weeds.
The answer lies in a few concepts.
1. Xeriscapes
2. Grey Water and rain water collection
3. Synthetic Grass (Yes, dare I say it, artificial grass)
1. XeriscapesBy definition Xeriscaping refers to landscaping and gardening in ways that reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental irrigation. It is promoted in areas that do not have easily accessible supplies of fresh water, and is gaining acceptance in other areas as climate patterns shift. The word xeriscaping is a portmanteau of xeros (Greek for "dry") and landscape.
source: wikipedia
There are several companies out there that will come in, plant your xeriscape take your money and go. These specialized installations can cost you anywhere from $1000 to north of $50000 depending on what you want to get out of it.
If you have a tad bit of interest in gardening you can reduce this to around a $1000 for a decent sized yard. What you mostly need are gardening sheets to lay down to avoid the weeds from growing through your hard work. You'll need a variety of stones and rocks that fancy you and you will need to decide on what plantation is local to the area that you live in and are mostly drought resistant.
There are several resources out there that will help you design your own xeriscape.
Here are a few.
1.
http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_xeriscape.htm2.
http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/Xeriscape.htmltons more that you can google
2. Grey Water and Rain Water CollectionSimple terms, Grey Water is wash water. Very different from Black Water which you would rather not deal with at all. Grey water is what would be waste water coming out of your sinks, tubs etc. This would be somewhat soapy/hard water which with a little filtration would be ideal for watering plants and landscapes - just don't drink it.
Think about all the water that goes to waste while you take a bath or a shower or even when you wash your hands, dishes etc. Usually we keep the tap running causing lots of wastage. Well first off you should waste water like that. We can probably look into low flow or rather intelligent flow faucets at some point in the future.
What I have in mind is to have alternate piping installed under my sinks and tubs and shower areas that could be switched over to my grey water treatment equipment rather than straight down the drain. Why would I want a choice? Well depending on what I am putting down the drain, I may not want it in my grey water treatment equipment. Examples would be drain openers or some other sort of unfilterable liquid.
Once filtered, this water could be added to the rain water collector barrels that could be placed under gutters. Once needed, this water can then be pumped using a motor or a handpump to water flower beds, trees, or grass.
For additional information go to
http://grey-is-green.com/index.htm3. Synthetic GrassOh this is something that has recently caught my attention. Gone are the days when synthetic meant astroturf. That hideous looking sometimes smelling material that feels more like soggy carpet than grass. Now, synthetic grass has become quite lucious, deep, soft and full body.
Check this out!
This awesomely amazing looking grass is not real. Its by a company called SYNLawn Synthetic Grass. Check out their gallery for a very eye pleasing slideshow of nice looking yards.
http://www.synlawn.com/Armed with these 3 methods, I would do the following:
1. Only plant localized plants, shrubs and trees that will not require a green house type environment. If its growing out in the wild, you'd probably be able to grow it in your yard.
2. Cover most areas with nice looking pebbles and rocks.
3. The plants that I go have and the areas that need to be watered will watered using the grey water and rain water that was collected over time.
4. Potentially avoid grass all together. Grass is one of the biggest expense when it comes to water. Use synthetic lawns where possible.
5. Smart sprinklers that do not waste water by watering pavement. Pavement doesnt grow you know and there is no point watering it. Use a smarter method of dispersing water to where ever it is needed. One good method would be a soaker hose rather than sprinklers. This would assure a consistent supply of water through out the day.
6. Timers. Very easily installed and setup. There are ideal times to water plants. You wouldnt want to water something at a time when it would completely evaporate. Nor would you want to over soak plants and potentially ruin them.
All three concepts require a lot more details that I might cover in the future as it may be required.
