Maybe he should just put in astroturf
Atlantic City, New Jersey (Reuters): Despite weeks of drought and mandatory water
restrictions in New Jersey, Frank Rudisill has a nice green law
outside his house. And no one can take it away from him, not
even the police.
That is because the lush green color on his lawn in Galloway
Township, New Jersey, is not the result of illegal watering. It
is the result of green dye.
Rudisill, saying he was tired of watching his lawn wither in
the drought that has gripped the northeastern United States and
turned many lawns an unsightly brown, used the same dye that
makes the playing fields of the National Football League look
so good on television.
"I admit it. People think I'm crazy," Rudisill, a certified
financial planner, said Tuesday. "But I spend a lot of time out
there. I can't handle looking out the window and thinking, 'My
God, it looks terrible."'
At first, his neighbors suspected he was violating the
state's watering restrictions, which prohibit the watering of
lawns, much to the chagrin of many homeowners.
One woman left a nasty note in his mailbox, he said. A man
walking his dog kept walking when Rudisill said hello, he
added.
But he insists he has done nothing wrong by using the dye
called Lesco Green -- excessive, maybe, considering the dye's
$43-a-gallon (3.8 liters) prince tag, but not wrong.
"There's an aspect of ego here," he said. "I know it's kind
of neurotic ... and yeah, I'm competitive."
Rudisill uses a regular gardener's pump sprayer to touch up
brown patches until they are the same tone as the rest of the
grass. Like hair dye, it has to be reapplied when the roots
start showing.
A local company that sells the dye said only a few customers
have come in for it since the drought began.
