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Posted: October 4, 2006
Nothing beats the sight of a brilliant green expanse of lawn as winter rye grass fills the landscape against the greens and golds of autumn color. Winter rye has that unique deep lush green that everyone longs for in the summer and it thrives in the cool weather of autumn and early winter.
“Winter rye must be watered four to six times per day for several weeks after seeding to get it established,” stated Lorrie Reeves, Plano’s Water Education Coordinator. “We just don’t have the water supply for that this year.”
Due to the on-going drought that has placed the City and region under Stage Three once weekly outdoor watering mandates, watering variances for establishing winter rye will NOT be granted.
“It’s a sad truth, but all our landscapes will have to continue to look a bit brown until the drought subsides, the lakes fill up and we begin getting our regular amounts of rainfall again,” said Ms. Reeves. “The good news is, if watering is done properly (one inch per week) most native plant life and established lawns are going to survive this drought.”
Both Lakes Lavon and Chapman, the region’s water sources, remain critically low, necessitating large amounts of rainfall to return to conservation levels. While no-one can predict how much rain we’ll get over the next few seasons, predictions are that North Texas will remain under strict watering restrictions through Summer 2007.
Thanks to the support of the Plano community, Plano has thus far met the mandates for water conservation set by the North Texas Municipal Water District. All cities in the District have mandated consumption goals they are not to exceed in order to ensure an adequate water supply remains for customer cities. Lakes Lavon and Chapman serve over 1 million water consumers.
“Plants and grasses that are not native or adapted to the North Texas area are at risk,” continued Ms. Reeves. “The maintenance of high water using plants during this drought can significantly impact our water consumption and most agree that Stage 4 outdoor watering restrictions, where outdoor watering is banned altogether, is not a place any of us want to go.”
Winter annual rye grass is popular in the southern states for creating a rich green lawn in the winter months. Both perennial and annual ryegrass is over seeded on warm grasses that go dormant in the fall/winter. As with any new grass seedings, however, it takes large amounts of water to ensure initial growth and is normally watered throughout the winter months to maintain its density and continued growth.
In addition to not granting watering variances for ryegrass seeding, the City is also encouraging persons to postpone plantings of new landscaping unless they are using drought-tolerant or Xeriscape (native to the area and weather conditions) plantings.
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