Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cash for Grass, check, government, milkweed, pile, plant, Roseville, seeds
We got the check from the city of Roseville this weekend. $700 to put in the bank. That sure feels good. Who would ever have guessed you could get a government check without having something really unfortunate happen to you first, or being in Congress!
That conlcudes our relationship with the City of Roseville for the time being, but the project continues to evolve. None of the plants have died yet.
As for the seeds, not one of the milkweed seeds has sprouted yet of any type. They have been in the dirt for about 8 weeks so far, so I expected at least a few of the early seeds to have started by now. Maybe the “cold stratification” outside failed and I killed them all. Of the wildflowers, the lupine and poppies have started coming up, some of them are a couple inches tall. The lupine were large seeds, with only a few in the pack. I think I got about 50% of them to start. Plenty of poppies. The yarrow and monkeyflower have also sprouted, and they are numerous but very tiny. Nothing yet of the bluebells, blue-eyed grass, or yellow-eyed grass.
Some of the other plants in the front are starting to show new growth. Others look like they are barely hanging on. My sod pile is also gradually decreasing in volume every couple of weeks. I’ll post more pictures soon.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: budget, cash, Cash for Grass, kids, lawn, milkweed, plants, rock, Roseville, seeds, wildflowers
main front ex-lawn
gate to street stepping stones
- driveway strip
- driveway strip from driveway
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Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: California, cash, Cash for Grass, environment, funds, government, grass, Roseville
The application for this program turned out to be one form, downloadable, that can be filled it out in a few minutes. Surprisingly easy – kudos to Roseville! We sent the form in. Then we waited. For weeks. OK, now it was looking like government.
I decided to try to contact them, if it was physically possible. The City did have a web site with actual people to contact, Shane Reid and Lisa Amaral. These actual people responded promptly and helpfully, despite being in government. They responded that we were too slow and the program was out of money. But they were trying to get more funding due to the strong response for the program.
2 days later they called back and said they got funding for an additional 70 houses, and our application was accepted. Too cool! THEY called US, and they had actual MONEY! Either the drought situation here truly is dire, or Shane and Lisa are brilliant at working the bureaucracy, or both.
Now that we have been accepted into the program, we are reading the terms and conditions. This is a bigger commitment than I expected. The city inspected our yard and determined that my front lawn has 700 square feet of eligible grass. I have to complete the project within 6 months to get a reimbursement. I have to use drought tolerant plants. I have to remove or cap my sprinklers, but I can put in drip irrigation if desired. I have to replace the grass with plants that are rated on their chart with pre-established “coverage when mature” area. I have to use a mulch (no bare ground). I have to hop on one foot while I dig the holes with my teeth. OK, maybe not the last thing. Still, it’s a big deal.
When done, I have to close the process by sending back my list of plants and such that I installed, and they will confirm with another inspection. I agreed to the terms. The project begins.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: budget, California, cash, Cash for Grass, college, conservation, drought, environment, freshman, grass, green, hippies, Roseville, subsidy
Remember in college when that freshman bought a bag of “grass” for $25 from some guy, and it turned out it really was grass, like right from the lawn outside the dorm? Well, the City of Roseville, California is that college freshman, and I am the guy. Yes, I am selling my lawn to the City of Roseville, and they are buying.
Specifically, Roseville is trying to get people to remove their lawns in order to conserve water. It is an example of a government incentive pushing people to behave in a socially responsible way, at the local level. Must be a couple of hippies in our city government. The program is called, truly, “Cash for Grass”. The summary is that they will pay $1/square foot (not quite as good as $25 for a Zip-loc baggie) for you to rip out your lawn and replace it with drought-tolerant low-water landscaping.
I already hate my lawn. I hate taking care of my lawn. I hate paying someone to take care of my lawn after I got sick of taking care of it last year. I hate cat poop on my lawn. I hate that it looks just like everyone else’s, except more weeds and crabgrass. I have always wanted to rip it out, and now I can get paid to do it.
I created this blog to chronicle the adventure of attempting to get government funding for something I wanted to do anyway, but was not worth the effort and cost until they prodded me with a subsidy. Unfortunately, the city funding will almost certainly not cover the full cost, so I’ll still be doing this on a tight budget. Still, between lawn-guy savings and the reimbursement, the project should pay for itself pretty quickly.
There will certainly be other challenges as well, as I will defintely no longer have a house that looks like everyone else’s from the street. We’ll see what the neighbors think…
