Good afternoon! 

Thank you all so very much for your interest and participation in my blog from yesterday.  I’ve been painting and thinking again, so  here’s another topic that is near and dear (to us and millions of others) – water conservation and preserving our safe drinking water.   There are many things we can do on a daily basis, each one of us, to assist in this important matter. 

Our home is in a neighborhood that is not governed by a Home Owner’s Association (HOA).  I know that in some ways they are beneficial – mostly in visual matters - but in many ways HOAs are obstacles to good environmental practices (St. Augustine grass that demands hazardous chemicals and too  much water, non-native shrubs and trees that are not drought resistant, and much, much more).   I attended a Clay Action Network (CAN) meeting where the speaker was a geologist from the St. Johns River Water Management District  and the topic was the upcoming daily redirection of the St. Johns River and its tributary, the Ocklawaha,  to provide water for Central Florida’s over developed area.  The first words he spoke were to advise us that the water belongs to all of Florida.  During the discussion after his presentation, several people who grew up in Florida stated how they lived their entire lives without a green, manicured lawn, but relished the earth in its natural state and that we all need to start conserving. One lady grew up in Maine, with rocks for her yard and play area, and was astonished with our develpment.

That said (and you know there’s much more to say about the SJR project), I thought I’d mention just a few things we began doing about 7 years ago when the chinch bugs ate our St. Augustine lawn in about 3 weeks (1/2 acre).  We mulched our entire side yard and installed native plants everywhere.  We did purchase stones for walkways but mulch would be fine; we installed rain barrels (since we do have a lot of gardens) and run soaker hoses from them (I have a spigot for filling the watering can).  You would be amazed at how little rain is needed to fill a rain barrel if you have a gutter and downspout to direct it into the rain barrel.  Replace showerheads and faucets with low-flows; replace your washing machine (when necessary) with a front loading washer.  There are many more ways, and rather than my rambling on, here are links to some very interesting websites.  www.earth911.org [1]; and www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org [2].  In the Riverkeeper’s website, check out the newsletters tab.  Another good one is the www.sjrwmd.com [3].  It is very informative about conservation and explains their mission and their charge to protect the river.  It is too bad they are not doing all they could, but they have a great website.

I look forward to more discussion from our intelligent blogging community on this very important issue – our Earth and Water matters.

Thanks,
JudyB