Grass only, no irrigation

Hi Marcio, It is my understanding that turf is considered to require irrigation. Electing not to water something that requires irrigation doesn't meet the intent. The challenge with vegetation that requires irrigation is to reduce potable water use through the use of reclaimed water (rainwater, gray water) and/or through the use of efficient irrigation design and controls.

Marcio, I had projects with grass and it was not irrigated and is not going to. Hard to believe for Americans, but very common in Europe. If it is dry in summer the grass will turn yellow and that is perfectly fine. We did however feel that this would be cheating to have the baseline case irrigated and the actual grass not. However we also had other landscaped areas with drought resistant plants, which also did not required irrigation. So this is how we got full credit. In your case you do indeed have irrigation with a hose (that's a pretty inefficient way of irrigation). You will need to do the calculation and it will probably not look good regarding your consumption. My suggestion is to get a really good sprinkler, which you can connect the hose to and maybe a smart controller if that's in the budget (depending on size $500-1500). Do the calculation and make sure you are reducing your consumption enough to gain credit points. Good luck!

Hi Susann, In your case, did you include these species of grass as "turf" or as "groundcover"? it is not clear to me where is the line between these categories.

Grass is turf. Ground cover are plants overgrowing the ground and covering is other than grass Here is a link to a picture of ground cover: http://gogardennow.blogspot.com/2009/05/tips-for-planting-ground-cover-junipers.html

Thanks. I have a similar project. Did you then insert "0" for the species factor for the non-irrigated grass?

Yes. You can enter 0, so it will show 0 in the last column. Keep in mind we did enter the turf as having no consumption in baseline and proposed design.

Oct 05 2012: We did however feel that this would be cheating to have the baseline case irrigated and the actual grass not. However we also had other landscaped areas with drought resistant plants, which also did not required irrigation. So this is how we got full credit. Oct 08 2012 : Keep in mind we did enter the turf as having no consumption in baseline and proposed design. Hi Susann, I am just slightly consfuse from your above replies. So does that mean you included grass to be irrigated in baseline and in proposed design, no water cosumption, giving your project high percentage of water saving that resulted in full credit. I am working on project which has football ground that will be using turf grass and need assistance. I would truly appreciate your reply,thank you!!

For the not irrigated turf grass, we claimed no savings, since we entered both baseline and design case with 0 water use. As for a football ground, there are exception for such areas. You will find more under LEED for Schools regarding this credit. It has been heavily discussed there.