Ouch! Is that for how long a period? :-(
We still need rain!
Can't Mother Nature give us some of the rain from down south?

Nope, she gave it to us, sorry!!!

We got 4.1 inches Tuesday and Wednesday.

pitimpinai, that's for one month. Hard to believe, isn't it? And I've never been a waterer until this drought, never needed to, except containers and newly planted ones. I peeked at your member page...WOW! Beautiful garden. You must be the envy of the neighborhood. I bet you get some wonderful comments from passerbys, too. How long have you been gardening that plot?

I guess I feel the increase I saw on my last bill was small compared to a bill like that for one month! Normal water bill here is $60-70 for three months and this past quarter it was only slightly higher at around $100. I also let the lawn go and only watered the plants and the few new trees that we planted. The back lawn isn't bad, still green, but the font lawn is really dry and burned in spots.

I know we have some of the lowest water rates in the area. Just north of Cincinnati the water rates are MUCH higher... 2-3x the amount we pay, so I feel very fourtunate. They also use the winter water usage during the summer to base the summer sewage usage rates as they know people water the lawns and flowers.

Needless to say, much happier camper now with the rain we received!

Shannon

Ouch, double ouch. $300.00 for one month water bill! :-(

The papers said we would still need up to 12" of rain more than normal to make up for the drought. And that's not comforting because we have had way below normal precipitation.

Nope, no rain at all for two weeks now and nothing for the next several days.

Thanks, Anita. I have lived in this house for nearly 19 years. The lawn area has been gradually diminishing. Neighbors had looked at me askance, but most have paid me compliments now. The police came last month and had me wondering about a squad car in front of the house. It turned out that one of the officers and his wife were avid gardeners. He would like to know what plants I had. :-D

pitimpinai, I think you found an ingenious way to make sure your house is protected. LOL.

Anita, sorry to "hijack" your thread, but you started it. ;)

Pitimpinai, I looked at your web page also and was floored by your beautiful gardens. Your home looks very similar to the one I grew up in, and our idea of front yard gardening was to have a row of tulip soldiers marching along the edges of the front walk. You've done a great job that you should be very proud of.

V. (escapee from the SW side of Chicago)

Thanks, V. I live in the Northwest side of Chicago. :-D

Anita, we don't pay as much for water here in the city because there is no meter in our house. Plus, we get a senior discount since my husband is one. Recently Mayor Daley was mumbling about putting a meter in every house, though.

Mine was around $270 0r $230, not sure because when I opened the envelope and peeked inside I saw a 2 folowed by a seven or three. Shut it real quickly and later told my wife the water bill came and that it was around $200 and before she could ask any questions I was out the door.
This is for a three month period, not bad but much higher than normal. Have about a 5000 Sq. Ft. lawn and am pleased to say that it was practically the only green lawn around, roses, anuals and perrenials did beautifully.
Quick story, had a neighbor that kept asking me what my water bill was and I kept telling them that when I found out I'de let them know, am very sure they were having a few laughs at my expense:)) By the way they deemed it wasteful to water in summer. Well, when I told them how much it was they had the most pleasing grin on their face. O.K. I thought, know my turn. OH! by the way how much is it going to cost you to replace or fix your 5000 Sq. FT. of lawn that's burned? As you might expect it, no more pleasing grins just a slight murmur of what I thought was hundreds of dollars. So we said good bye and I went back to a beautiful green landscape:))

Jimmy

And here's the best solution to high water bills. :-D

{{gwi:51846}}

I have no more lawn! :-)

Yeah, I got rid of all the turfgrass 3 years ago and haven't looked back since! I grow mostly beautiful natives and give no supplemental watering to the established plants. Plus I have rain barrels for the veg. gardens. If my water bill goes up in the summer it's only because we shower a bit more often! :-)

First off, AWESOME GARDEN! How do you keep your phloxes so nice and green? My phloxes get white mold or fungus, whatever that makes them dry up.

My last water bill was $250! Terrible! A good news is that it is for two months. Half of it goes toward the sewage charge, even though it is used for watering lawn and plants.

I am in Des Plaines, I don't know if our water is cheaper or more expensive than in Chicago, it's still high.

K.

Thanks. The Phlox does get powdery mildew, except 'David'.

Your water bills maybe higher, but your heating bills are much lower, though. :-( The bills even out somehow. I have friends in Des Plaines and other suburbs who pay much less for natural gas than we do in the city.

In our community, the utility department charges for sewer services based upon your water usage. Therefore, if you use a lot of water outside irrigating the garden or filling the swimming pool, you are charged per gallon for disposal of that water via your sanitary sewage.

To avoid extremely high water/sewer bills during the summer, we had the plumber install two meters and two primary feeds into our home. One for the inside use and one for outside use. The initial cost was about 250 bucks (new construction ... you will pay more for a retro-fit), and that saves us about 200 bucks a month on our water/sewer utility bill during the summer.

This remedy is only applicable in communities where the sewer rate is based on water usage. Our sewer rate is almost 3 times per gallon what the water rate is.

Bill