Water restrictions
 

I for one am more than understandable that we have not had any water for months upon months, so when the water restrictions were instituted, I fully agreed. However........... does anyone have any REAL knowledge whether the Villages has stopped new construction until things turn around. For example, spec-built homes have open houses all the time. My thoughts are that Spec built houses (new construction) should be totally stopped. Anyone already in contract, their homes should be built, but any new contracts should stipulate there is a building moratorium until things turn around. I'm not agreeable to perhaps losing thousands of dollars of plants and lawn in order for sales to continue.

I somehow doubt The Developer will halt new construction. :eek: There is still water in some of the retention ponds and golf course watering seems to be continuing. All the lawns are still looking good.

The current water restrictions are in place until the end of June. Hopefully during the summer, the rainy season will fill up the retention ponds again.

Hopefully IS the key word..... Bring on the Rain....:bowdown::bowdown:

I'm sorry to have to disagree that all the lawns are still looking good. I can't vouch for any other villages, but while traveling along the 8 blocks of our street on the way out to breakfast this AM, I noticed that the majority of lawns were having problems and were a dingy looking brownish color.

Having said that though, I can say that our lawn is probably one of the greenest along the entire street. That's probably for two reasons; one that Massey takes good care of the fertalizing and the other that our lawn service doesn't cut the grass too short or too often. Therefore IMHO, the once a week watering is not necessarily the problem, but rather inadequate fertalization along with grass being cut too short and too often in many cases.

http://www.greensforum.com/images/sm...g-the-lawn.gif

Is restrictions all of the villages or just certain areas of the villages? I close on a patio villa in Caroline in May and I am coming down for 2 weeks to furnish it...Just wondering what to do ...

different by county
The Villages Water Wisdom

fyi:
http://www.thevillageswaterwisdom.co...der%20Info.pdf

The following is a summary of the restrictions.
 Lawn and landscape irrigation may only occur before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
on the designated once-per-week watering schedule.
 Handwatering or microirrigation of non-lawn landscape can be done any
day, but only before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
 Certain exemptions are available, such as allowances for new plant
material.
 Car washing is limited to once per week on the designated watering days
as shown below.
 Fountains and other aesthetic-only water features may only operate 4
hours per day.
 Pressure washing is only allowed for necessary purposes, such as prior to
painting or

Of course,The Villages won’t stop construction, and I don’t want them to. But I understand what the OP was pointing out. The lawns in unsold spec homes and courtyard villas are watered as frequently as necessary to keep the grass/plants green and healthy. Not once a week, but every day, perhaps twice a day, if necessary. I’ve seen water literally pouring off unsold/new properties and running down the street, while occupied homes are under water restrictions.

Grass will go dormant and brown out as a protection. When the water returns, so will the green grass....nothing to fear.

There is a house under construction across the street from us. The irrigation lines are in and I have seen the sprinklers running several times. The funny thing is, there isn't any grass there yet, just dirt.

Why not set your timer to go on at like 2 in the morning??

Whose timer?

Bill :)

I set my timer to go on at 6 am and off around 11pm, my wife winds me up on a daily basis!
:22yikes:

Turn around?
 

What makes you think selling and building is slow in The Villages. I've noticed while golfing Villages going up in a matter of months and very shortly after that people moved in and enjoying. In fact the Villages made Sumter County one of the fastest growing counties (by population) in the USA. I think any builder in the USA whould like to be this slow!

I have no problem following the restrictions and believe they are necessary (although we just put new sod in the front and I am watering it twice a day for the next week), but what irks me is when I drive along El Camino Real (did this yesterday) and I see the sprinklers doing the median areas and to the side of the road going at 2:00 in afternoon. This is NOT the most efficient time to water. Why can't they water early in the morning or early in the evening like the rest of us?

ummmm...isn't that called mud? :laugh:

Car Washing and Lovebug Season ... do people really only wash their car once a week?

Now thats tooooooo much common sence for them to handle........:beer3:

I don't disagree, but a few questions do come to mind:

• Does the areas they water look visually lacking for sufficient watering?
• Do they rotate their water scheduling similarly to what's required of residents?
• If they scheduled their watering within the same hours as residents are required to, would that create water pressure problems for them and residents alike?

I don't know the answers, but it seems that these points might affect their scheduling decisions.

To be honest, I think someone just needs to adjust a timer somewhere.

The lawns in this area look no better or worse than most of the residential lawns I see in the area.

Sprinklers can be on from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM and not have the heat of the day evaporate off all the water (that is the rationale for when Villagers can water), so I am certain there are non-peak times that could be used.