Skip a Week of Irrigation and Help Save a Billion Gallons of Water this Winter

[Palm Coast]

The St. Johns River Water Management District is asking homeowners across its 18-county region to join the statewide "Skip a Week" campaign to save water during the cooler months of December, January and February when weekly irrigation isn't always needed


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[Jeannie]

I do not water my lawn. I am sure it drives the guy next door crazy. He is really anal about his yard and I cannot stand him, so anything that pisses him off makes me happy. I know it is driving him crazy that I am not raking up the leaves. I thought I might mulch them and leave them in place. He got pissed at me because I do not rake my lawn after mowing and stuff blows in his yard. I do not see anything blowing over there, I think he is nuts. Gave me shit the first day I got here, I tried to be nice and finally had it and ripped into him. We no longer speak.

[ROOT]

You can save multiples more water by just raising the damn mower deck. St. Augustine grass requires about 5 to 6 inches to protect itself from brutal sun, deep shade, drought and weeds. and be thick lush and healthy with ZERO irrigation. here in the dilima All homeowner mowers are designed for northern grasses that can tolerate a less frequent shorter cut decks raising at best 4 inches but more often as low as 3 max.
Shorter turf can be had with more frequent cuts following the guide of never cutting more than 1/3 of the blade, so to cut 3 inches means you cant let it get over 4 1/2 cutting every 1 and a half inches of growth.
In summer with irrigation and high fertilizer that could be as short as 3 days. meaning if the cut is every 7 days growth is as much as 3-4 inches, but average is 2-3 taking off 4 inches or half can be devastating to the plant when the mower don't go no higher. allowing 2 inches of growth and cutting at 4 is the best a homeowner can do on a weekly schedule unless they modify the moweror cut more than once a week.

not allowing the turf to remain taller in winter , and using the mower as a leaf rake further weakens St augustine giving weeds and insect advantage.

twice a year in the late spring march to april and early fall sept, oct. one should lower the cut over 3 or 4 mowings to thin thatch then bring it back to max for the extremes of summer and winter weather.

[Jeffrey]

I think I ran my sprinklers maybe 3 times this year and I have a private well. I will never run city water on my lawn as it's not good for it, but, better than nothing is about it. NOTHING is as good as rain water though!!!