Badge of Honor

After four years of drought, a green lawn is now suspect. It probably means you are using a lot of water. This is troubling to the rest of us with yards that now look like dead, spare lots. This does not seem fair, whether you can afford to pay for the water or not. It is not about the money, it is about the inequitable use of a scarce commodity.

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But, if you're using an alternative water source, like reclaimed, recycled, or collected water, this is a great time to proclaim it. These signs are like a badge of honor  for finding alternative way to keep the landscape green. Indirectly, this encourages the rest of us to get creative about maintaining our landscapes.

Gray Water in Dublin

A sign outside Home Depot in Dublin, CA grabbed my attention: Recycled Water Delivery. The Drought Savers website describes their services. They transport recycled water to your location in their tanker trucks, and offer a full line of storage tanks and pumps for managing the water. Their primary service area is Livermore, Pleasanton, and Brentwood. Pricing depends on water needs and location. This is a great idea – something for homeowners to help mitigate the drought.

Delivery service for gray water

I work in Dublin, and admire the city’s use of gray water for public landscapes (their beautiful street trees are irrigated with recycled water). The gray water infrastructure is managed by the San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Program, a partnership of two water districts. But currently, California regulations prevent single-family homes from tapping into the gray water infrastructure.

The Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) offers an alternative for residents in Dublin, San Ramon, and Pleasanton – free recycled water available for pick up at one of their fill stations. You bring your own containers, and get instructions on how to transport and manage the recycled water. One of the fill stations is in Dublin, near the Civic Center. Water is heavy, so you need the right rig and containment to manage the water.

Trucks line up to pick up gray water in Dublin

 

This is the kind of innovation we need to help solve our water shortage! Gray water is being cleansed and recycled for landscape use. An infrastructure is being built to deliver recycled water to large scale landscapes. Creative solutions are available for getting recycled water to small landscapes. A few hurdles need to be worked out. Could a less affluent area afford a gray water infrastructure? When will California codes support gray water for single family homes? But the program in the Tri-Valley area is a good start, and a good test case for learning.

Ahead of Their Time

My grandparents, Nina and Lionel, moved to Hemet, California in the late 1960s. They bought a top-of-the-line, double-wide mobile home, and purchased a lot in the Sierra Dawn retirement community. Hemet is located in the beautiful Hemet Valley, only an hour from Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park. It was a great solution for hard working folks ready to retire. Great weather, and a great community.

Many of these folks had decided to retire their lawn mowers as part of their retirement. Instead of lawns, they put in rocks and gravel. There were several popular colors, typically beige, rust, red, and green. They decorated with an assortment of lawn ornaments. A few people planted a tree or shrub, or some cacti and succulents for a little green. But most of them liberated themselves from the burden of yard work forever. 

Gravel replaces lawns for time and water savings

When our family visited Grandma and Grandpa, from lush rainy Alaska, we couldn't help noticing the gravel yards, decorated with flamingos, trolls, woodland creatures, and the like. Quite appealing to us kids: there was definitely a grandparent vibe going on. But we could not help snickering at the neighbors out in their yards reverse-vacuuming their gravel (this was before the era of leaf blowers). The whole scenario seemed hilarious to us – to be out in your tiny rock yard vacuuming.

Now, looking back over 50 years and with an adult perspective, I'm thinking these folks were ahead of their time! Sure, their motivation was cutting down on yard work. But they were on to something! Now, we're cutting back on lawns, to cut down on water use. Luckily we have more options for our lawn-free yards, but I think these forward thinking seniors paved the way for our activities today!