We Can Grow Grass, But Should We?

Lets face it, southern California has perfect weather.  Because the sun shines almost every day and the temperatures are consistent, we have no problem growing plants outside here.  This is why you see so many houses in Orange County with perfectly manicured lawns and landscaping, growing carpets of grass that look like they go on forever.  All you have to do is plant seeds and make sure that the sprinklers go on every day, and you are going to grow some spectacular plants for your landscaping.  But the question remains that just because we can grow plants and grasses here, should we?

Southern California has been in a severe drought for many years, each year the amount of water consumption outweighing the amount of rainfall that is necessary to refill the reserves.  This situation gets worse every year, with the water shortfall continually compounding itself, especially in the summertime.  When we hit a certain point where the amount of water in reserve is not able to provide a guarantee of clean drinking water to all citizens, we must act as a community to conserve the water that we have.  People always have to be prioritized over your lawn, no matter how much work and money you have invested in it.  A single square foot of grass in southern California consumes as much as 55 gallons of water that could be used for drinking, and if the choice has to be made between the two, we must let the lawn suffer.

Installing artificial turf is one way that you can do your part to conserve water in southern California.  Yes, this means ripping out the sod that you aid to put in and worked on for so long.  But you have to think about it like this, not only are you doing your part to conserve water, next year when the drought continues your grass is going to die anyway.  You are not legally allowed to water your lawn enough to keep it healthy during drought times, so it is best to take advantage of the programs and rebates that are offered during drought times to offset the cost of the installation.  Artificial turf is a perfect alternative because it looks and feels just like living grass but doesn’t need the water in order to keep looking good.  You can literally shut off your sprinklers and your lawn is never going to change.

The question of what is the right thing to do even when you have access to water is always difficult.  Yes, you can probably water your lawn and not get caught doing anything wrong.  There is a possibility that the summer will not be hot enough to kill it off this year, and you can continue to throw water down the drain just to make sure that you have grass in front of your house.  But is that the right thing to do when you know that people do not have enough water to drink?  Do your part and install artificial turf today.

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