Is it time to re-think having a lawn?

[Model35mech]

77. We have lawn but never water it, we also never apply herbicide

In southern WI we have 35-40 inches of precip per year. Generally water isn't a problem for lawns here unless you want it perfect all growing season.

I now am out of the city, and have a well. The biggest threat to my water is ag chemicals and an enormous mountain of garbage 8 miles north of my property (garbage that largely comes from Milwaukee County). Periodically we have to fend off suburbab Milwaukee attempts to buy property and pump water out from under the country-side

In town our water service was tied to sewage treatment and a county-wide fee for storage or rain-sewage (even though our house separated sewage and storm water) in an enormous underground tunnel reservoir because Milwaukee never separated storm water from sewage, so t keep The Lake clean, all the water is stored during rain-events and then treated and the storm water volume makes that very expensive. Every potable water use, is tied to treatment fees by volume, and the salary of our police, and the fire department, and ambulance and EMT services. All of which makes water quite expensive, and so we never watered the lawn and we still don't... Our water bill in town was regularly over $120 dollars for 2 people but the fraction of that which was for water was around 15 bucks. I much prefer being free from a crumby expensive city water/sewage and all the extras bill.

Up here it's a cool-season grass culture and without water in mid-summer heat the grass goes mostly dormant, so during July after the 4th there isn't really any mowing until it fully greens back in mid-to late August.