The grass is always greener: Hamptons homeowners shell out big bucks on landscaping

Greens fees aren’t just paid on the golf course in the Hamptons, where homeowners are shelling out big bucks — in at least one case well into six figures — to keep their properties pristine.

One unidentified East Hampton resident said a friend spends a half a million dollars to keep his grounds in tip top shape, Vanity Fair reported.

“It looks like it’s out of a movie, but it has to,” the East Hampton resident told the outlet. “He has dignitaries and celebrities and musicians and designers staying with him. He doesn’t have a choice. It’s a showcase.”

Other less extreme measures that some Hamptons residents are taking include trucking in water, which still costs thousands of dollars; spray painting yellow spots green, and paying someone to wash bird droppings off their lawns.

It’s a form of one-upmanship for the affluent.

“All the boys talk about in the Hamptons is the grass,” restaurant co-owner Sara Adams told the outlet. “I listen to it all the time. It’s like a macho-testosterone-penis thing. They sit down to dinner and the first thing they say is ‘How’s your grass looking?’ I swear.”

Top water users, according to Vanity Fair, are real estate mogul Robert Taubman and Jon Tisch. The No. 1 water user last year was Ickenham Limited on Meadow Lane in Southampton, which used 14.4 million gallons of water.

This focus on lush grass is creating problems, however, as Suffolk County is experiencing moderate drought conditions, Vanity Fair said, citing information from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Officials noticed that last summer in the Hamptons, some wells were running extremely low between the hours of midnight and 7:00 a.m., which could have affected the amount of water available for emergency services like firefighters.

To curb water use and have enough water for an emergency, the Suffolk County Water Authority this year created a policy to have homeowners water their lawns every other day. Because it’s a policy, and not a law, statute or ordinance, following it is optional, however.

And the lovely green grounds may be viewed more like a scarlet letter by many now.

“If you have a massive toxic green lawn, you look like a smoker,” Edwina von Gal, founder and chair of the Perfect Earth Project, told the outlet.

— Ted Glanzer