Our region has suffered a prolonged drought that put the local dams to the point of extinction. During this time, at my house we have stored water falling from the roof during the scarce rainfall, water condensing from an a/c unit that drips from the roof, directing the washing machine water into a big tank, and I went so far as to save water by practicing storing urine (check The Earth Institute) to use as fertilizer. It makes sense, you know. It's the best fertilizer around and a toilet wastes tons of water just to eliminate a few milliliters of pee. I had to quit, though, when I ran out of containers to store it.
After some rain from hurricane Albert and Beryl, the dams are somewhat recovered. Meanwhile I let my yard die. There was no point in watering the grass. I turned part of the yard into a desert area with nopales and agave cacti, a huge amount of work but well worth it.
For months we debated whether to get the massively expensive fake grass or try for tough natural grass that might outlive the next drought. After realizing how hot fake grass would get in a 42 degree Celsius day with full sun, we also realized you would have to cool it down...with water. An added problem was the existence of an invasive tree that broke into parts of our house through the cement. We didn't know the tree was such a menace (it's called palo blanco) until it invaded us, so we had let the thing grow and prosper for years. It had been here when we bought this house decades ago.
Our first task was the destruction of the palo blanco. Nature made this tree to face all comers. My first puny efforts were laughable, such as pouring salt water on the sprouts it sent up around the yard. The palo blanco does not produce flowers or seeds. It reproduces by sending roots from the main tree out dozens of yards into the soil where it then turns into more trees as it pops up its little leaves all over the place. We were forced to hire people to cut down the tree, dig out the roots which were alive in spite of the herbicide we had applied, and then dig up the entire yard in order to scotch the chance the devil tree was hiding roots unseen and laying in wait.
Finally it was done, and we decided to chance real grass. It came in turf rugs that are now all over the yard and which I am hovering over like a mom with a new baby. And yes, it will have to be watered here at the beginning for about two weeks unless we get more rain, but now the dogs can go outside and come back in without covering the floor with dirt, mud, and leaves. Grass! Impractical, supposedly unecological, and in our case, the only natural ground covering that will work in this heat and sun.
My dedication is total. I have a weedeater and a manual lawn mower now. Bring it on, as she says! (And you know who says that, right?)
