A few years back I heard local Democrat-about-town David Erdman give a talk on Charlotte geography, which included this memorable nugget: southern Mecklenburg County is the hottest, driest part of the state. He had rainfall and temperature maps to prove the point.
I'm reminded of that, looking at the map accompanying this USA Today story that the first two months of 2009 are the driest on record in this country. (Figures that the year of horrible news would include a huge drought as well.) Note on the map how the only part of North Carolina in the red, "extreme drought" zone is -- surprise! -- not southern Mecklenburg. Looks more like Rutherford, Polk and Cleveland counties, where there are, indeed, farmers who need the rain instead of city- and suburban-dwellers who just want lawns.
Which brings me to my two points:
1. First, patronize local farmers because it's smarter, long-range, to ensure that we have a good food supply in this part of the country and don't have to depend on veggies trucked in from California and other faraway places. If you want to "save open space" and "preserve farmland" then for pete's sake, think about preserving farmers as well. Here's a link to a column I wrote on the topic in November.
2. And second, what's with watering the lawn all summer? It's a huge waste of a precious resource. If you have fescue grass -- which most people here do -- it naturally goes dormant in hot weather and will revive in the fall. Water it every 2 or 3 weeks to keep it from dying. If you see someone with a green lawn in July, you're looking at someone wasting our water.
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38 comments:
Totally agree. Wasteful Burban Wankers.
OK. When the DC democrats stop giving all your hard earned tax money to Archer Daniels Midland, we can talk about local ag. issues.
Yard of the month baby. green year round. keep the water comming.
Hey 1:08 Anonymous,
If your referring to Farm subsidies you better check your back yard. It is the repukes who are in favor of giving subsidies to large billion dollar corporations.
I have NEVER watered my lawn. Ever. in 28211 zip. My neighbors hate me. I caught one neighbor watering my lawn (with her hose) in the dead of night...cracked me up. The next day I asked if she minded if I brought my laundry over too since she had plenty of water to spare! (luckily we are friends and she just cracked up at having been caught.)
Watering your lawn (not garden - LAWN) is one of the most selfish and narcissistic acts you can do in the city.
I'll ask you AGAIN, Mary:
IS THERE ANY PART OF MY LIFE YOU DON'T WANT TO CONTROL?
But all the other lemmings water their lawns. I want them to like me!
Thankfully I am very important and thus live in a condo Uptown so I don’t have a lawn to worry about like all of those morons who want to have a little space of their own. Now if you will excuse me I have to go sit on my balcony and watch the unwashed masses scurry back to the burbs.
Anon 3/11/2009 03:50:00 PM
I live uptown in one of those condos and I do watch you scurrying off at the end of the day. But I think "what a terrible commute every day".
But your post was just to damn funny. That cracked me up.
The waterhounds will be the first ones to complain when the water bills go up again.
Has anyone been by mary's house to see if she has a rock garden on her lawn?
If you want to live on a farm, move to Iowa...YEE-HAW!
What Mary is suggesting is akin to recommending that folks say "please" and "thank you." That's hardly communism. She's just providing information about the consequences of our actions, she's not advocating regulation. Some of us have done wasteful things like watering lawns in the summer without really thinking about what that means for scarce resources and appreciate Mary's calling our attention to those. You can do whatever you wish with the information, but I think most decent people think that taking only what you need is a good thing.
I need it all
I do believe 21 years in this cesspool of a town is about enough for me. People that post to this blog confirm that.
Mary! You took the photo for this blog post in your own yard, didn't you?!
Mark Sanford for president 2013!
The bigger problem is corporate watering. You can't go half a mile in the rain without seeing some stupid company's sprinklers on. But try to find one that got a citation during the watering restrictions.
Also overwatering is a problem. I think all lawn watering is stupid, but more power to you if you want to do it. But more than once a week (really more than once every other week) doesn't make sense. And if you do "need" that much water you have the wrong stuff growing here.
Ummm Molly, the rates went up because people used less water. In theory, if people used more, they should go down. Of course in reality, once government gets is greedy little hands on more cash, they never give it back.
"Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping, and unintelligent" H.L. Mencken
Let prices control scarce resources not the government!
Look at the gov't they can't do anything right. I much prefer to have freedom to make bad choices rather than have the gov't make those choices for me. Just look at Social Security.
Social Security is has withered and expected to not be able to pay full benefits in 20 years. This is due to wasteful spending by the GOP. Clinton reeled it in but you Bozo's screwed it up again. Somehow YOU managed to double the debt in the past 8 years on a bogus war. That's up from just 5 trillion to the current 10 trillion. But that was fine by you GOP fools.
Now that we have a new president that wants to spend LESS THAN 1 trillion trying to fix the mess that YOU got us into, you totally freak out.
Government is good if it is done right. The past 8 years is a fine example of how it was done wrong. Don't blame government, blame the party you voted for .... TWICE.
Social Security is has withered and expected to not be able to pay full benefits in 20 years. Clinton reeled it in but you Bozo's screwed it up again.
Can you explain that exactly anon? Specifically, what did Clinton do to fix the Ponzi scheme of Social Security that W somehow reversed?
Did Clinton cut Social Security payments that Bush reinstated? Did he raise Social Security taxes that Bush lowered? Maybe Clinton fixed the demographic problems at the root of the issue and Bush some how reversed that? Or maybe Clinton raised the retirement age and Bush and those evil Republicans lowered it again?
Anyway...it's supposed to rain a bunch this weekend, so Mary and the lawn watering Gestapo can rest easy that not much water should be going to waste.
Anon 5:43 check your facts. What Clinton did to change social security was to add the funds to the general budget, which balanced the budget, but left social security broke. Bottom line both parties are to blame for the mess we are in. If you want real change impeach congress and try our politicians for economic treason!
Yeah, Obama is going to lead us to destruction. Obama is nothing more than a tyrant!
Hillbillies,
Suck it up, you lost .... get over it. We as a country have voted for a new agenda. If you don't like it you can always leave. Just like you've told us we could do over the past 8 years.
Sayonara, don't let the door hit you.
Great attitude!! Bottom line I will fight for limited gov't as long as I'm alive. So you get used to it!!!!
"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session" Mark Twain
Anon 2:43 sounds like you need diversity training.
Anon 3:13:00 PM
Why, because I believe your way is wrong ?
Give me a break. Your song and dance is played out.
To folks in water-blessed NC, it all seems odd and unreal. Westerners are used to it. (Milagro Beanfield, etc.) But it's coming.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0903/S00262.htm
Hmmm... no posts in a week. Either Mary's on vacation with Ann Caulkins, or McClatchy's about to put her on permanent vacation.
MNI stock: finally back above the cost of a paper (.55).
I thought the Disturber cost 75 cents now?
And it's funny how Mary complains about "our" water when we as individuals pay for it: The more we use, the more we pay.
Mary, your communism is showing again. Take it back up to Massachusetts where it belongs.
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