Traditional sod lawns are becoming a thing of the past due to rising water costs and the continued need for conservation.
Did you know that landscaping accounts for almost 70% of the water Californians use at their homes? A typical sod lawn requires 57 inches of water a year – that’s over 1 inch per week. While some comes from rain, the rest has to be provided by irrigation. In fact, a small lawn of only 1,000 square feet uses an average of 55,000 gallons of water each year!
If the lawn is over-watered, as many are (some sources say as many as 20-30% of lawns are over-irrigated – by up to 300%!), then the total water usage for that small lawn can jump to 75,000 gallons per year.
In January of this year, after one of the driest winters in recent memory, the San Francisco Chronicle forecasted the “worst drought ever” for the state of California. Increasingly dry conditions in recent years prompted Governor Schwarzenegger to declare an official drought in June of 2008 – with the state’s reservoir levels receding and its ground parched.
Included in the Governor’s declaration was a warning that the state might be forced to ration water to entire cities and regions if conservation efforts did not improve – increasing the cost of water for the average homeowner. Indeed – cities all around the Bay Area are enacting water usage restrictions and campaigns.
According to the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCS), the cost of water is on the rise. Some sources estimate water rates will increase as much as 30% over the next 3 years. With this in mind, the water savings provided by onelawn® artificial grass become even more important.
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