The District of Houston is landscaping the new Mountainview Cemetery with drought tolerant grass and shrubs to avoid installing an irrigation system.
John Guenther, Director of Engineering and Development Services, says the capital cost is $5,000 to reseed and upgrade the top soil, and it would cost about $300 per year on maintenance.
“It’s a bit of an experiment for the District,” he said.
“The hope is to try this for a year and see if we can get it established - get the grass growing and trees established - and see how that works for the year.
“It’s not as green as you’d like to see it. But in the long run, I think it’s the most responsible way to look after something like this,” Guenther said.
The other option is to run 1.2 kilometres of pipes from the Water Tower and put in an irrigation system with pipes, a pressure tank and pump, Guenther said.
The capital cost would be $22,000 plus $1,500 in maintenance per year for mowing, fertilizing and watering.
Council agreed to try the drought tolerant grass.
“We’ll try it out for a year. If it doesn’t work then we’ll have to go back to option two,” said Mayor Bill Holmberg.