How Green Is My...Lawn?
So I’m walking down the leafy lanes of San Marino the other day -- no I don’t live there -- and couldn’t help but notice how lush and green all the lawns were. Hey. Wait a minute. Aren’t we in a drought? Aren’t Socal homeowners all being watched by the irrigation police?
A quick call to a spokesperson for city of San Marino revealed that residents of this affluent community don’t have to worry about what day of the week it is when their automatic sprinklers pop up. No water diet for these well-tended lawns. They get all the H2O they need to stay picture-perfect.
I asked the city official why? With TV commercials and the threat of fines reminding the rest of us to follow the watering schedules, how can they have virtual golf courses for front yards? And we’re talking some pretty big lawns for a city with only 13,000 residents. That means the water consumption per person must be pretty high!
He explained that the city isconsidering some lawn watering restrictions. But right now they don’t have any. San Marino gets its water from the MWD. So they DO have to abide by something called the “model water ordinance.” And the city has done good things like installing more efficient sprinkling systems along street medians. But as far as private lawns are concerned, it’s just another day in Seattle. So if you get tired of seeing blocks of brown and yellow in your neck of the woods, take a stroll among the moneyed mansions in San Marino.
Oh.. FYI.. the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, with its spacious lawns and scenic gardens --they get their water from their own wells. God bless the lawn that’s got its own.