In 2019, we are already seeing record high temperatures all over the southwestern United States. While the winter may have been cooler than expected which may have lead some people to believe that our temperatures would be cooler in the summer, it appears that the exact opposite is happening. Instead of expecting a cooler summer we are probably going to swing far hotter, which will make things difficult for us here in Southern California. The difficulties will not only be unbearable temperatures that make it difficult to be outside, but in addition we can also expect another severe drought to occur. This will probably reduce the amount of water in reserve that we have seen increasing over the last few summers, which will drop progressively this year and next year. This means that we can expect watering restrictions to come into play again, and ultimately we can expect our landscaping plants to once again die.
This is unfortunate for many people who may have just replaced or restored their lawns just this winter. The last watering restrictions were in place at the end of last year, causing so many of us to watch our lawns go brown. We heard reports about the winter being wet, which increased the reserves to a safe level again and made people believe it was safe to put money back into their yards. It now looks like that was a mistake and people will lose that investment. When the mandatory restrictions kick in again, all of that fresh grass is going to die off.
If you did not put money into your lawn to restore it yet, you may have dodged a bullet. If you ware going to watch your lawn die off again, you may have another option. That option is synthetic grass, which is an artificial plastic product that looks and feels just like real grass. This product is staked to the ground where your real grass would be, and it ultimately acts as your natural lawn. The advantage is that it does not grow so it needs no ongoing trimming, and it is not alive so it needs no ongoing watering. The only things you will probably have to do is to hose it off every now and then to both cool it down a little in the summers, and also to clean any debris that has gathered on it. By installing artificial turf, you will not only be participating in the saving of water that is so necessary in southern California this year, but you will ultimately benefit yourself as well by saving the money that you would lose when the inevitable happens, and you are forced to cut off water to your lawn. While your neighbors watch their yards go brown, you will be looking out onto a lush and green landscape, end enjoying it on the weekends. Make the smart choice this year and allocate the money that you would have put into natural grass, and put it int synthetic grass instead.