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Texas drought

Gents, here in Central Texas we are experiencing our second year of drought. The temperatures have hovered over a 100 for the past 45 days. No real relief in sight until fall. Maybe.

We are down to a mandatory watering schedule of once per week. My day in Friday. I have St. Augustine grass that is usually lush and thick. Unfortunately, it is nearly dead. It is hanging on by a thread. Some of my neighbors have lush green grass that I'm sure they set their water sprinklers to come on after midnight to skirt detection. So much for water conservation. :rolleyes:

My question is what can I do to keep my lawn alive for next year?
 
Some of my neighbors have lush green grass that I'm sure they set their water sprinklers to come on after midnight to skirt detection. So much for water conservation. :rolleyes:

That's disturbing. Sorry about your lawn, but I hope you take some satisfaction from being a responsible citizen.
 
Austin, I know. It's really terrible here. We did catch a break today and got 1-1/4" of rain in Salado. Luckily for us, our house is on City of Salado water, and our sprinkler system is on well. Our St. Augustine is real thick and green. The areas that the sprinkler does not reach is Bermuda and i am having to hand water it. It's not doing so good. Luckily we have not been put on watering restrictions yet.


DL
 
Austin, I know. It's really terrible here. We did catch a break today and got 1-1/4" of rain in Salado. Luckily for us, our house is on City of Salado water, and our sprinkler system is on well. Our St. Augustine is real thick and green. The areas that the sprinkler does not reach is Bermuda and i am having to hand water it. It's not doing so good. Luckily we have not been put on watering restrictions yet.


DL

Hi Dustin,

It's good to see you on the site. I hope you and your wife are doing well.
 
Hi Dustin,

It's good to see you on the site. I hope you and your wife are doing well.

It feels great to be back. We are keeping ourselves as busy as we can and are trying to be around as many people as we can. It helps being around people. It's weird, the sad feeling doesn't go away, but you forget about it when with people. Then it hits you, "wait a minute, I'm supposed to be feeling bad". All in all we are doing fair and I am quite confident that we will pull through this.


DL
 
It feels great to be back. We are keeping ourselves as busy as we can and are trying to be around as many people as we can. It helps being around people. It's weird, the sad feeling doesn't go away, but you forget about it when with people. Then it hits you, "wait a minute, I'm supposed to be feeling bad". All in all we are doing fair and I am quite confident that we will pull through this.


DL

Hang in there brother. You and yours are in my prayers.
 
Austin, you should only need to apply 1" of water every 7-10 days. Deep and infrequent watering schedule encourages deep, drought tolerant root systems. If you are watering by hose-end sprinkler, place several straight sided cans (think tuna) throughout the watering zone. Turn on the water, and run until the cans accumualtes 1" of water. You know know how long to water. If you are using a sprinkler system, you will probably have to switch it to manual. Honestly, I've seen very few properly installed systems, and even fewer that are programmed to water properly.

On the drought, hang in there. We went through a similar situation a couple of years ago. Aren't ya'll (Austin and surrounding towns) also drawing from Edwards? That seem like a situation that is going to get scary in the near future.

Keep your eye on the dove, Dustinl.
 
First off -- Dustin, I also am glad to see you back.

Second: not only am I moving to the Metroplex (Denton), but I study droughts and the effects they have on conflict and cooperation among political units. I don't have much advice for dealing with cheating neighbors (except a video camera with a night-vision lens for the ones you don't like :devil: ), but as I'm about to be some of y'all's new neighbor, it makes sense for me to check in here too. Hi! I...can't wait to share your pain...? :001_huh:
 
If you're using air conditioning, you might want to collect the condensed water from the air conditioner. Depending on the time used and air humidity, the water collected can be sufficient for the lawn.
 
I wish you the best, hey at least you are saving water from using a DE? That might count for something! Does not help with the lawn I'm afraid.

Stay safe and hydrated!
 
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Way to stay up, Dustin. Good to see you back.

We don't seem to be having any drought up here in North Texas. This has been the rainiest July we've had in a long time. Maybe it'll filter down.
 
Way to stay up, Dustin. Good to see you back.

We don't seem to be having any drought up here in North Texas. This has been the rainiest July we've had in a long time. Maybe it'll filter down.
same here in NE TX; had some major flash flooding Tuesday...in July! what's that all about?
 
same here in NE TX; had some major flash flooding Tuesday...in July! what's that all about?

That's Texas! I used to hate it, walking to school bundled up in the morning because it was brass-bra cold, only to be sweating like a slave after school when it had warmed up to 85, and I had to lug my jacket around, usually draped over my tenor. No wonder I never worked my traps growing up.
 
Dustin, glad to see you here.

Austin, my yard is just about dead as well. Its funny, if you drive around the neighborhood you see lush green vibrant yards, dead yards and then yards like mine, part dead and alive. I'm really hoping for some rain, and soon.
 
Got some nice evening rain today...of course I'm sure everything will be dried out again by noon tomorrow :frown:

At least the rain cooled things off a little bit. :thumbup1:
 
Yep. Tonight's rain means my lawn just might survive another week or two. And that I will have to mow it again before it dies.:frown:
 
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