"The situation is very dire"

We now have buckets and pans in our shower, in a system that's not efficient but that works to collect bath water. When we moved to the metro Atlanta area from Central Texas in June, we left behind an area receiving record floods. We are now in a state of record drought. The red clay of our lawn is hard as rock. Preparing our yard for planting native plants, vegetables and herbs is daunting. Tom took a pickax to this soil destroyed by cotton farming, and though this house was built in the 1940s, I can see little evidence that any previous owner tried to replenish the soil. Even with a pickax and shovels, we could dig no deeper than three or four inches: the soil is that devoid of moisture.We've found free compost, chipped prunings and leaves composted by the county--but there's not enough water to plant.

Until a couple of weeks ago, people in our area could water their lawns or wash their cars three times a week. We don't water grass unless we're trying to establish a native plant, as we did in Texas when we were establishing buffalo grass in our lawn, a native, drought-resistant species. So it seemed to me that the water situation couldn't be too dire since the county was allowing citizens to water their lawns. Then we were put on an outside watering ban about a week or so ago. Now I read that Atlanta's "main source of water, Lake Lanier, could be drained dry in 90 to 121 days."

How has it come to this dire situation so soon? I think that our leaders are slow to ask for sacrifices. Our country is run by people who do not prepare for the long term. We've seen that in the planning--or lack of planning--in the war in Iraq. We've seen it in our government's disregard of the signs of global warming. We see it in disasters such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes. We're to blame, too. We're the ones who elect these folks. We're the ones buying the huge trucks, Hummers, and SUVs. We're the ones watering our expansive lawns of grass while Lake Lanier drains to record low levels.

I don't know how our plans will succeed for turning our yard into a native plant paradise and edible estate. We're catching shower water just to sustain the plants we have already.

And we're down to three-minute showers.

How to Eat Your Lawn
Fritz Haeg: Edible Lawn Manifesto
University of Georgia: Georgia Drought