Oh the joy…

[jfk69]

Oh I understand completely. I won’t bet the house saying it WILL happen, just that it might. Trust me, I’ve mentioned to my lovely wife that after retirement, I think I want to try the first winter in coastal Texas.

But, if it really does start warming up (and a LOT can happen in 100 years lol), that it wouldn’t be out of the question. I get that the wells are working fine, but one only need look at the current situation to the north of you in the Ogallala (sp?) aquifer where recharge is not keeping up with withdrawal and aquifer levels are dropping.

One thing I would fight until my dying breath, however, will be pumping the Great Lakes dry so someone can irrigate a golf course in west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona etc.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by jfk69

Oh I understand completely. I won’t bet the house saying it WILL happen, just that it might. Trust me, I’ve mentioned to my lovely wife that after retirement, I think I want to try the first winter in coastal Texas.

But, if it really does start warming up (and a LOT can happen in 100 years lol), that it wouldn’t be out of the question. I get that the wells are working fine, but one only need look at the current situation to the north of you in the Ogallala (sp?) aquifer where recharge is not keeping up with withdrawal and aquifer levels are dropping.

One thing I would fight until my dying breath, however, will be pumping the Great Lakes dry so someone can irrigate a golf course in west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona etc.

Lots of things going on with water, same as it's been for hundreds of years. I live over the Ogallala aquifer and have a personal well drilled into it.

The aquifer will be OK when things get back to normal (rainfall). The problem is the sheer volume of withdrawals from it. The water is managed by water districts that issue well permits. Well permits are always approved (at least where I'm at). An irrigation pivot system can pump a million gallons of water a day and much more. Those wells water cotton primarily or other crops. Those wells pump more a minute than I use in a week.

I too worry about the rivers and lakes being drained for whatever reasons by cities. Where our vacation home was there were streams with fish in them, small lakes...the streams just flowed out of the mountains. The cities went up into the mountains and siphoned every drop of that water out then when they went underground they put in wells to siphon that off as well - to use in the cities 40-50 miles away. It's a problem and it will continue to grow - we just have to learn to manage it.

[gearhead]

Who is it that is trying to corner the Texas water,the Bass brothers, Jeff Bezos?..Some famous Texan.
Been thinking….T. Boone Pickens.
Danny what kind of grass do y’all use?
My boss lady usually gave me the job of breaking in our new Mechanical Engineers. One of them from Ohio told me…I have a question..why do I have vines in my yard? Huh? Yeah vines, and they are hard to pull up. LOL that is part of the St Augustine grass. That’s how it spreads, don’t pull it up.

[sourdough]

I sodded all the yards with Tex Turf 10 decades ago when we built the house. It's a bermuda hybrid and was great.....for maybe 10 years. The pecan trees kept growing, the shaded areas got bigger and Tex Turf, although supposed to be good for that, began to wither under the trees. Overseeded with fescue spending lots of time and money to get a great fescue lawn.....until the first year we were on the road. Now it's fescue under the trees and a mix of fescue and Tex Turf bermuda in the areas exposed to direct sunlight all day.

[chuckster57]

10 decades? How old are you??

[notanlines]

Just when one thinks jfk69’s idea couldn’t come to fruition keep in mind the Third Straw Las Vegas has under Lake Mead, paid for mostly with federal funds.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3150321/amp/Lake-Mead-s-Straw-817M-pipeline-built-UNDERNEATH-reservoir-ditch-effort-save-Las-Vegas-drought-doom.html

Damn, Danny, 10 decades?!

[sourdough]

Yep, it's been a looong ride! The grass is called Tex Turf 10. It kind of ran right into the rest of the sentence leading to a little confusion - sorry. I doubt I'll be talking or thinking about grass after 10 decades.

[pawpaw]

Never thought I's be watering grass in SE Louisiana either. Hottest and driest stretch of weather in my 75 yrs. Bermuda and centipede combo here thats been great for 15 yrs. Just mowed and have the sprinklers running now! 101 the other day with a feel like temp of 124. Dew point temps in the high 70's and even hit 80 one day. Low 90's the past 2 days with low for us humidity and it feels not so bad! AC's in the house and camper are getting a good workout. Heat never bothered me in my younger days but it gets to me now!

[gearhead]

Around here it’s almost 100% St Augustine. My St Augustine did well for the first 8-10 years. Now I’m having issues. It is very susceptible to disease, especially fungus. Usually here we have very heavy dew and it doesn’t burn off until late morning, maybe 10am so the grass stays wet a long time. I used to get a small spot of fungus but fungicide would clear it up. Now I’ve got a big spot that the grass has died and has been taken by weeds. Nothing has cured it.
I’m about to say heck with it, the weeds are green so I’m OK with it.
I may lose my two pear trees and my newer oaks are dropping leaves despite me watering them. I have three crape myrtles that are wilted bad. Never seen that before. I’ve lost several camellias.
Slight chance of rain tomorrow, very slight. Houston hit 108 yesterday.

[JRTJH]

I'm sitting here watching a "light, drizzle with an outside temperature of 62F. I'm not "rubbing it in" but rather giving the current conditions....

When we built our new house in Pineville, there was a "all the rage, new hybrid grass" on the market. Reportedly, it stayed green almost all year long, only had to be mowed less than half as often, didn't need watering except in extreme drought, was "lush and thick" to crowd out weeds and prevent them from getting established in the lawn. I thought it had to be a "win/win" for a new lawn where there was nothing but dirt after construction...

It was only available through a select few golf course supply houses and was being overseeded on all the local courses. A 100 pound bag of seed (supposedly enough to seed my new lawn) was almost $1500. I used it, did most of the front and side lawn, it was a superb success, but I needed more seed to finish the back yard and behind the fence. That was another $1500.

It was an awesome lawn, the greenest in the neighborhood, I hardly had to mow, it kept filling in and getting thicker all that first summer. And I never needed to water it. The instructions were to feed it only in the fall with a quality fertilizer.

Well, dummy me, in the fall, I headed to Lowe's in Alexandria, bought the most expensive "winter weed and feed" and use a spreader to care for my new lawn... About a week later, I started noticing brown spots in the front yard, they kept getting bigger and bigger. As my "multi-thousand dollar lawn" grew brown, I decided to double check that bag of weed and feed...

Turns out, there on the back of the bag, in very small letters, was a caution, "Do not apply to Bermuda or Bahaia lawns"...

OOPS !!!!! My "weed and feed" had been applied to a Bermuda hybrid lawn.... The next spring I started over with a mixture of Kentucky blue grass and fescue.

Much to my dismay, I was "relegated to twice weekly lawn tractor use" just like the rest of the neighborhood....

My lesson: Don't try to get professional results unless you hire a professional who reads the small print on the back of the weed and feed bag.....

[sourdough]

^^^^LOL! I mentioned overseeding with fescue in a previous post - Hound Dog V it was. Always had bermuda lawns but needed something under these trees. It turned out beautiful! That lasted for a few years (with lots of water) and then I did like you did; we were going to leave on a trip so I wanted to do a weed and feed.... I NEVER use weed and feed but instead make 2 passes with each product...not this time.

I put it down feeling all "accomplished" about getting that done before we left. Sprinkler systems were set, lawn people doing their weekly schedule...good to go! I came back several weeks later and I had dead fescue everywhere (it was summertime). I was sick. The product I used said it was OK for fescue but it was formulated for "southern grasses" and there was a very hot spell right after we left, guess it was just too much for the fescue. Now I've got that mix of the fescue and bermuda I mentioned....and I NEVER use a weed and feed now - just put down Scott's Summerguard several days ago...hopefully it doesn't all just kick the bucket.

[LHaven]

Originally Posted by jfk69

Only thing I don’t understand. Why does anyone bother watering a lawn in the hottest and driest part of the year? I’ve never been able to wrap my head around that concept. Kind of like putting a golf course in the desert. Crazy.

Why, to feed the livestock, of course!
If you do your part, they'll reward you with the putting green.
I haven't mowed the lawn in years.