NewsWest 9
MIDLAND - It's been months without rain and the sweltering heat isn't making this drought any better, especially for some local businesses.
It's hard to believe this time last year we had plenty of rain. You'll remember the Odessa Fourth of July celebration was actually rained out.
But now it's the completely opposite and landscapers are counting the days until we see rain again.
"With the water shortage and people not being able to water, it's hard on everybody," Marie Dayley, with Dayley Landscape Center, said.
But it's getting even harder for landscapers to keep business up. Dayley said business has been declining ever since water restrictions were put into place.
"Oh it has slowed down a lot, tremendously, about 30 percent," Dayley said.
She said because of the drought, less people are buying plants and flowers.
They're also skipping out on landscaping services and it's having an effect on her.
"I'm not ordering like I used to," Dayley said. "I used to order every week and now I'm ordering like every other week."
The company does offer desert landscaping. Even though it uses a lot less water, she said people just don't want it.
"It hasn't done a tremendous pickup because everybody likes green, they like the green sawgrass," Dayley said.
Although business for real greenery has gone down, Dayley said they are getting lots of calls about something else.
It's called waterless grass also known as turf grass.
"To install it, it takes quite a bit at first but then after that, you don't have to maintenance, you don't have to water it, you don't have sprinkling systems, you don't have to fertilize it," Dayley said.
It runs about eight or nine bucks a square foot but she said its worth the investment.
Whether you have fake grass or real grass, Dayley hopes we see some dark clouds soon.
"Pray for rain so we can get more," she said.
