Jonelle Simons - Park City Utah Real Estate

With all the rain this May/June, you obviously haven’t needed to do much watering for your lawn yet!  Just because the sun has been out for a few days doesn’t mean you need to start now.  You want your lawn to have a healthy, deep root system, this is just one of many reasons NOT to turn your irrigation on yet.  Deeper roots draw moisture from a larger volume of soil, and therefore, require less irrigation.

There are 2 tests you can use to determine if your yard is dry enough to start watering.  The first is a screwdriver test.  Adequate solk moisture at 6 to 8 inches deep is sufficient to maintain grasses during the summer.  A long slender screwdriver pushed into the ground in several locations can give a quick assessment of the moisture condition of the soil.  The screwdriver will easily penetrate to the soil depth that is still moist.

The other test is called foot-printing.  Walk across your lawn late in the day and look back to see if your steps left footprints.  Your footprints will appear in a lawn when the grass has low levels of water.  When the blades are compressed by your feet, the low ater levels prevent the grass from springing back.  If footprints remain for an extended period of time, it’s time to water.

Taller grass has a deeper root system that draws moisture from a larger volume of soil, and needs less irrigation.  Grass should never be less than 2.5 inches after mowing.  Mowing once a week is usually enough to maintain the proper height.  A lawn that is 3 to 3.5″ will have a better chance of surviving prolonged drought and water restrictions.

To keep your root system healthy, water no more often than every third day, and make sure to turn it off after it rains.  If you are served by Park City Municipal, call 615-5301 to obtain your Every Third Day watering sign, and you will be exempt from the every-other-day (odd/even) watering ordinance.

Many of these tips have been borrowed from Tom Ward of the Park City Water Conservation Taks force, so thanks to him for providing this helpful information.

After swimming along with mortgage interest rates at ALL TIME LOWS for a couple of months we were shocked back into reality about 10 days ago when they started climbing rapidly. In a period of 5 business days our best conventional loan rates went from 4.5% up to 5.25% and FHA loans rose from 4.875% up to 5.5%. WHEW.  Of course these were still fabulous rates compared to historical trends, but we were all shocked anyway!!

Well, in the next 5 days the dramatic rise sopped and rates have again slipped back down a little – and today our best conventional rates are at 4.875% and FHA loans can be priced at 5.375%.  No one expects these low rates to stick around forever and every forecast we see has rates rising significantly over the next 12 months. Buyers should take this into consideration and get their bargains now – a difference of just 1.0% increases the cost of ownership of a $300,000 property by $15,000 in the first 5 years. And anyone with a fixed rate of  5.5% or more should consider refinancing to lock in a lower rate NOW.