Let抖阴ap talk about your grass. No, this column is not about weed. I鈥檓 talking about the Kentucky bluegrass or fescue of most lawns. Let me be blunt: your grass is not dying. You don鈥檛 need to water it. In fact, you should not water it more than two days a week in areas along the Front Range currently under water restrictions.
If, during this week of 100-plus temperatures, your lawn is a uniform emerald green, chances are those Denver Metro homeowners who are trying to meet the 20% overall water reduction goal for the service area feel a bit resentful.
It is everyone鈥檚 responsibility to reduce water use.
Colorado鈥檚 snowpack is just 42% of the normal level, and Denver Water鈥檚 reservoirs are only 78% full. Yet, Denver Water customers have only cut around 2% of the five-year system average, according to a recent article by The Colorado Sun. While Aurora鈥檚 reservoir system is in worse shape, just over half full, its customers have met the reduction goal of 20% of 2025 outdoor use. Way to go, Aurorans!
To address noncompliance, Denver Water has already sent out 3,100 letters to educate users and has stopped by some 700 homes to speak to homeowners when agency personnel note violations. Customers who ignore these efforts will be subject to fines starting at $250. Repeated violators could end up paying $1,000.
Fortunately, abiding by the restrictions is not as hard as you think. Allowing grass to go dormant during the hottest days of the summer takes advantage of an evolutionary adaptation that other yard plants like geraniums, tomatoes, and petunias lack. When those plants are crispy and yellow, they鈥檙e not coming back without a zombie plant apocalypse. Brown grass, however, is alive and waiting for cooler weather and rain.
Depending on the type, turf grass can be dormant for three to six weeks without permanent damage. During this time, blades turn brown or straw colored. One way to assure yourself of the lawn鈥檚 health is to grab and pull a clump of grass. If it remains anchored in the soil, it抖阴ap alive. Only if it turns grey and pulls up easily is the grass dead.
By abiding by the utility鈥檚 limit of twice-a-week watering (before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.), homeowners can keep grass alive in a dormant state until later in the summer when it will bounce back naturally. If grass along the sidewalk edge or in other vulnerable areas dies, it can be reseeded or even better, replanted with alternative lower-water landscaping such as Colorado-adapted bushes. These areas, as well as potted plants and vegetable gardens, may be hand watered throughout the summer within the aforementioned allowable hours with a hose equipped with a shut-off nozzle.
In all, maintaining outdoor landscaping accounts for 40% to 50% of a home鈥檚 water use. How much water is that? On Mondays, when Denver Water customers are not supposed to water lawns at all, water use in the service area dropped by 52 million gallons on those days compared to others in June and July!
After decades of falling precipitation and rising temperatures, we can assume hot and dry is the new normal. We need to ensure there is enough water for household, commercial, municipal, and agricultural use, the fulfillment of interstate water compacts, and equally important, the maintenance of healthy rivers and the ecosystems they support. Everyone in the American West will have to cut back on water. Letting grass go dormant during the dog days of summer is not much of a sacrifice. It will green up again.
Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.
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