Landscaper wants City Council to ease water restriction

WILMINGTON — Landscaping is big business here in North Carolina — there are nearly 400 such businesses along the Cape Fear coast. For many the recent drought has lead to layoffs and profit losses.

Tuesday one local landscaper will ask the Wilmington City Council to ease the mandatory water restrictions.

Don Curtis has been landscaping for 36 years. Tuesday night he will present City Council with ideas that will allow people to irrigate their lawns and still conserve water.

He’s partnered with local water conservation experts to come up with ideas. The group wants to set up workshops and classes to teach landscapers the proper way to water existing grass and freshly grown grass.

He says that watering your lawn should be broken up into stages. Existing grass needs less water, and should only be watered twice a week. New grass needs more.

His committee has been meeting regularly, working to figure out a master plan. They hope to have a final proposal to give to council in a few weeks.