Green grass or brown grass??

[tessa]

Hi - I'm a part-time property management person and I have a query about the colour of grass!!

I just wondered if you all water your lawns regularly (give or take the odd water restriction) so they are green and healthy or do you let them go brown and crunchy in the summer heat (possible due to size and/or water restrictions)? Do your guests ever complain (I read on one of the forums that some guests had complained about weeds)?

As I look after a couple of rental cottages, both with large gardens, it made me wonder if the rest of you worry a lot about your guest's first impressions.

I'd like comments from owners and paying guests please.

[la vache!]

I let mine go brown - it soon recovers as soon as there is a little rain, but it is about 2 acres and too big to water. I do keep it neatly mowed,though, and the little flower bed weeded and the pots watered every other day.

[mpprh]

Hi

not a rental property, but at home I try to water enough to keep the grass almost green, but not need cutting.

We have virtually no rain between april & september, so it only works if you have access to free (ish) water.

Older properties have water tanks or a well. Otherwise, you need to have access to agricultural irrigation water.

I get through 550 tons of water in the summer : pool cleaning, watering the veg, and the lawn.

Peter

[Ju]

We let ours go brown, there is just too much of it to water. We have never had any complaints though.

Ju

[LaLuz]

We keep ours green but we have automatic irrigation and a well so that's easy.

What is more of a problem is that the combination of sunshine and water means it grows like crazy!

[cromercrabholiday]

Both home and cottage lawns have to take their chances with the weather. Cottage is much smaller and more sheltered, so tends to stay greener longer. We have a gardener for a couple of hours a week to keep the garden tidy, but no more.

John

[enid]

Leave it to the elements - we keep our water for the flowers. Guests don't seem to mind - they almost seem to accept it as a sign that they are having a holiday in the sw of France where it gets hot and the grass goes brown

[Fraise]

We're the same. The flowers get watered but not the grass, it's not ecologically sound to water it

[Marg]

We water our grass and plants. The garden is one of the main features of the property so a nicely mown green lawn is a must!
We have our own bore hole and irrigation system - it didn't rain at all in Portugal for nearly a year in 2005 so things would not have survived.

[Fraise]

We have a well but when the restrictions are in place we aren't allowed to use it. We had some plants in large pots but all have died. One rose we moved by digging up some of the plage around the pool and planting it there- that survived. Most of the plants in the ground are OK- the olives in the ground are thriving, the one in a huge pot died.The big pots at the rental house are full of geraniums and look lovely cos I leave a watering can on the laundry draining board and ask guests to water them !

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