Lubbock’s dry, semi-arid climate can require homeowners and businesses to keep a close eye on their landscape practices to ensure their lawns stay healthy and beautiful – green. However, experts say this can lead to overwatering and a mismanagement of the local natural resources.
The Green Psyche
Dr. Susan Tomlinson, an associate professor of the Texas Tech Honors College, has been studying this exact psychological need. She teaches interdisciplinary studies in nature and the arts as part of the Honors College Environment and the Humanities program.
Tomlinson believes that people are attached to well-manicured, green lawns because there is an association with childhood memories.
“The landscape that you grew up with,” she said, “is the landscape you always know – especially if you had a good childhood.”
Many people come to Lubbock from elsewhere, she said, so they want their lawns to looks like their personal version of home.
“People long for the things that gardens can give them in terms of comfort,” she said, “so they grow up with a lawn that’s sort of their perfect idea of what a successful home looks like, and that so happens to be a well-manicured lawn.”
The Scientific American even states people also attribute lawns to our level of success in life – they are the physical manifestation of the American Dream in home ownership.
Tomlinson said there are also historical reasons why Americans like their lawns, but there is also some instinctive reason that we long for the color of green.
“Green means water,” Tomlinson said, “so, unless you were born into an arid landscape or come from ancestors who were part of your landscape, you probably feel very uncomfortable.”
She stated this leads to a lack of environmental awareness and care.
“You hear people describing Lubbock (by which they mean the city and the surrounding environment) as ‘ugly’ because it has no mountains, no water, no forests, no beaches,” Tomlinson said, “and for the people of Lubbock that absence means that it is not a beautiful space.”
Tomlinson goes on to say that if these environmental conditions – brown, dry, and flat – are not desirable green spaces, then we have no concerns for preserving them. In this way, the aesthetic factor, drives the environmental decision.
“People don’t try to preserve what they perceive to be ugly, regardless of environmental concerns,” Tomlinson said.
You are Wasting More than You Realize
When people don’t have an incentive to think of the environmental impact, they can get to a consistent point of overwatering says Katherine Drury, the High Plains Water and Conservation District, HPWD, education and outreach coordinator.
Drury said watering more, doesn’t necessarily make it a healthier lawn.
“If you water every day,” Drury said, “the root system of your lawn will be shallow and weak, making it more susceptible to disease and damage.”
She suggests watering deeply and infrequently – about two times a week at most – because when people water deeply, the soil builds its moisture profile and gives the roots the ability to go deeper in the soil, thus building a heartier root system. This, overall, will keep lawns healthier during dry times and its period of dormancy during the winter, she said.
“If you’re watering to the point of where water is leaving your property,” she said, “it is a wasteful use of water.”
Her message, and the message of the HPWD is whether it is indoors or outdoors, wherever the water comes from, they want people to focus on conservation.
“The more water you put on your lawn does not mean a better, greener, or healthier turfgrass,” Drury said.
While people think full grass lawns are kind of the ideal, she said that is not necessarily the case. Even though the Lubbock-area is a native prairie area and grasses are definitely a big part of the natural ecology of the area – and a natural ground cover, it is important to incorporate a waterwise system and native plants into flower beds. These will make green spaces beneficial to the environment such as wildlife and pollinators while curbing water use.
“In terms of grass in particular, it’s not about pulling up all your grasses,” Drury said, “but reducing the amount of grass.”
One might think that to solve the problem altogether, artificial grass is the way to go. Not so fast, says Drury. Artificial grass gets really hot in the summer, requiring the use of water to help cool things down.
HPWD uses a waterwise rain garden around their north parking lot to help water runoff onto Ave Q and attract pollinators.
“It gets hot, if not hotter than concrete – like a hundred and twenty degrees,” Drury said. “Then the wind blows in dirt and you have to rake it out.”
Drury said actual grass is good for the soils in the area. It is also beneficial for pollinators and bugs, and it helps to know anything green is going to release a bit of oxygen into the air. Artificial grass is not the answer, however, being smart with real grass is.
“Every little bit helps – every little drop of water that you can save is going to make a difference,” Drury said.
If the 127,393 households in Lubbock County learned how to save a gallon of water – whether indoors or outdoors – it adds up incredibly quickly Drury said. She said it adds up to more than 2 million gallons a week – and that’s just Lubbock County.
“Conserving water is not just for you,” Drury said, “It’s really for all the other citizens in Lubbock and the future citizens of our area.”
Businesses Count Too
Unfortunately, not all business or home owners know what needs to be done in order to conserve water properly – even when trying their best.
An unnamed maintenance and landscape manager for a large, local apartment complex said he has been taught the primary goal for his property is “beauty first,” seeing as people are willing to pay more for attractive green spaces, according to The Conversation.
In the book The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession, author Virginia Scott Jenkins states a desire for a lawn is an inherent need derived from English and French pleasure gardens and brings out a need to manipulate and exploit the land around us. Businesses need customers, and customers inherently know they want attractive green spaces.
Despite his obvious goal, however, he said he does his best to make the property look its best while choosing plants and water cycles carefully.
All his plants are bought locally and are recommended for the zone 7 climate. He said he picks out the hardest plants – ones that have lasted for seven years or longer – to avoid replanting as much as possible.
Despite this, he said he waters year-round based on the time of the year and heat. If any of his grass looks stressed, he knows it’s time to “bump up the water.”
“This is a beautiful property and a lot of money was spent on landscaping,” he said, “so I try my best to keep it to that level.”
He said that 70 to 75 percent of the property is watered during the night, and the rest is watered during the day on drip – even through winter; however, he said he doesn’t know how much water is used daily or weekly.
“Scientifically,” he said, “it may be different, but that’s just what I do.”
A City of Planning
Fortunately, the City of Lubbock has been planning out water usage for a while, as well as providing education services so that people can learn to better manage their property.
Aubrey Spear is the director of water utilities for the City of Lubbock, but is also involved in the state’s Water Conservation Advisory Council and the chair of the regional water planning group.
Spear said he believes the City of Lubbock citizens are a truly unique set of Texans because of what they’ve been able to accomplish with water conservation.
“Other cities have tried many tools in the toolbox and it’s cost them a great deal,” Spear said, “but we haven’t had to do that as much because I think a lot of it is cultural.”
The City of Lubbock has a waterwise rain garden at their facilities in northeast Lubbock to show citizens how to implement their own conservation-minded garden.
His cultural reference is to the farmers of the South Plains. Spear explained in the 1950s, farmers were pumping a lot of water to feed the crops, since then, there’s been a lot more conscientiousness that has spilled into the citizenry of Lubbock.
He said people began to develop the mindset of preserving local resources and established the first underground water conservation district in the state of Texas – now known as the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District or HPWD. It wasn’t until the 90s when the state decided to create those same districts where groundwater can be found.
Spear said a financial consultant came in several years ago and took a look at the way the city was using water and recommended a block rate for consumption pricing. He said it went into effect in early 2007 and has had tremendous success in the little over 10 years its been in place.
“We were over 200 gallons per person, per day 15 years ago,” Spear said. “This last year, it was 129 gallons per capita, per day.”
Echoing Katherine Drury from the HPWD, Spear said some people just don’t get the idea that only an inch-and-a-half of water is needed – even during the summer – on your grass.
Using the economic incentive is just one way the city tries to conserve water; Spear said, the other two are restrictions and education.
Lubbock is locked into a perpetual stage one drought the entire 10 years the block rate (seen here: CoL water graphic) has been enabled, Spear said. This means during the months of April through September, mandatory restrictions are in place where certain homes can water on certain days, during certain times of the day.
Aside from restrictions and economic incentives, Spear said education is the primary goal since the city does not have a group of people out looking for the violators. Instead, they rely on the citizenry to call in prompting officials to give a warning and talk about what needs to be done to avoid another violation. If there are repeat violations or people are not paying attention to their water usage, they can get cited and fined.
“That’s not the goal,” Spear said, “The goal is to get them to correct their behavior so that we don’t have a problem.”
How to read your water meter by the City of Lubbock
Morgan Hector is the water programs educator for the City of Lubbock and said the key to change is patience.
Hector spoke alongside with Spear about change.
“If you’ll be patient with people, fast is slow and slow is fast,” Spear said.
Hector added to the statement.
“(T)hat is so true because if you work with people, educate them, help them understand over time,” she said, “they start adopting things that are good, and it’ll be much more sustainable than if the government says ‘you’re going to do this.'”
Spear added on, saying the low hanging fruit of water conservation is outdoors.
“We’ve gotten into a period of talking about how to clear your bathtub drains or lower the amount of water when flushing your toilet, but that’s all pennies in the bucket compared to what goes on outdoors,” Spear said.
What Needs to Change
Susan Tomlinson knows all too well about changing people’s minds when it comes to landscaping. Several years ago, she put in a xeric landscape and had several concerned neighbors ask what she was doing.
“When I told them,” she said, “the response was always ‘oh, cactus and gravel’ and thought that’s it.”
She explained that’s what a zero-scape might look like, but not her xeriscape.
“I’ve tried to show people you can have a xeric garden that looks and pretty, and looks like a cottage garden,” Tomlinson said, “but it’s still using less water than the average lawn would.”
The cactus and gravel at the City of Lubbock’s water garden is only a small part of the landscape design, and something Susan Tomlinson says doesn’t even have to happen for your smart garden.
Tomlinson said that xeriscapes are much more acceptable now than when she first started.
“I think it’s hard to change people’s minds quickly or change culture quickly; if you try to change quickly you get backlash,” Tomlinson said.
She said people have to change their thinking about landscaping, which may not happen overnight. Tomlinson continued by saying change doesn’t feel secure, and that’s what a lawn is – security. With people holding a belief on what a house is supposed to look like, if a lawn doesn’t match a person’s ideals, then they may not feel secure. However, she said she believes there are better ways to cooperate and adapt to change so people can better manage our water resources.
“It has also been my experience that if these same people are exposed,” Tomlinson said, “over a period of time to knowledge about the ecosystem of Lubbock, and challenged to set aside the premise that the color ‘green’ is the only standard for beauty, then almost invariably, people develop an affection for the landscape that they did not possess before and will seek to preserve it.”
For more information on how to conserve water, change your green space, or even rainwater harvest, the HPWD and City of Lubbock have a number of resources. Both also recommended reaching out to your local Master Gardeners for more information.
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