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Kill Your Lawn!
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by kate | July 21, 2008 at 06:32 am
2677 views | 25 Recommendations | 15 comments
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Article from Alex Steffen about the environmental impact of lawns, ending with the question: "What's your favourite idea for replacing lawns"? Mine is vegetables. Also we put in a littlle patch this weekend of ferns and salal, which in this climate (Vancouver) means lush green stuff all year, with no watering required.
Recently, a NASA-funded study, which used satellite data collected by the Department of Defense, determined that, including golf courses, lawns in the United States cover nearly fifty thousand square miles—an area roughly the size of New York State. The same study concluded that most of this New York State-size lawn was growing in places where turfgrass should never have been planted. In order to keep all the lawns in the country well irrigated, the author of the study calculated, it would take an astonishing two hundred gallons of water per person, per day. According to a separate estimate, by the Environmental Protection Agency, nearly a third of all residential water use in the United States currently goes toward landscaping.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (15)
at 22:36 on July 21st, 2008
kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Some places and City have implemented Laws against any Chemicals to be used any longer on lawns and in Gardens! Japan has next to no lawns at all, Vegetables is what most grow on what ever land space they may have!
at 11:48 on July 21st, 2008
kate, I like this story. It's good stuff. Thanks for putting this out there. In my area(Vancouver Island) there are 16 golf courses within easy driving. There is a controversial project proposed that would involve yet another golf course. And it's not just the water consumption that a lush patch of green requires, there's the herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that filter down to pollute the ground water. Salal is wonderful. It has flowers in the spring and later you can make a relish out of the berries.
at 12:08 on July 21st, 2008
DevinPitcher has contributed a photo to this story.
at 12:28 on July 21st, 2008
Before you can kill your lawn, however, in some places, you have to convince your city council to actually let you kill it. In water limited Utah, for example, many city ordinances state that having a non-maintained yard including "brown" grass is not permitted (even during the hottest summer months) and not only are fines issued - but it's actually practically forcing home owners to use the water to keep their yard maintained. The reason, the councils argue is house values AND potential fire hazard. Perhaps there should be a happy medium like maintained yard (there is a difference between maintained and not watered/allowed to go dormant in the hot summer months) v/s not upkept and overgrown. Either way, attitudes here have got to change!
In this case, the alternative would be either making it dirt (again, not permitted under city ordinances) or xeroscaping. Thing is, though, if you buy a house with a yard... it costs alot to have the yard ripped up and xero scaped (even rock isn't cheap!).
Just another one of the things to think about before you make that purchase....
at 12:46 on July 21st, 2008
Wow, phoenixerose, that's just crazy. i didn't know there was anyplace that had an actual LAW that you have to water your lawn. Someone should work on that - it stems to a really basic misunderstanding of the state of the 'natural'. There are some beautiful desert plants....what about something like that? !
at 14:08 on July 21st, 2008
New Course, St. Andrews
scottpearson1874 has contributed a photo to this story.
at 14:42 on July 21st, 2008
Here is my article that was published in The Desert Sun
www.mydesert.com March 2008:
Desert Landscaping
The Palms Springs Planning Commission might suggest to landscape architect Michael Buccino to consider the installation of some artificial grass at the airport. This is consistent with water conservation and desert landscape and design. I recently installed Pegra premium artificial grass at my home and everyone that sees it is amazed to learn it is artificial. I installed it as part of my water efficient desert landscape. I designed three zones: mini oasis, transition, and arid. I lost a substantial amount of plants after the deep freeze last year and I decided to redesign my entire back yard using smart desert landscaping. Part of my research included a publication by the Coachella Valley Water District, Lush & Efficient Landscape Gardening in the Coachella Valley. I support policies and guidelines that are consistent with environmental green philosophy. It is time to review our beliefs and principles and realize we must conserve water and make changes accordingly. I would like to see local governments take the lead by example and also to offer incentives such as rebates for installation of artificial grass.
PSHiker has contributed a photo to this story.
at 15:50 on July 14th, 2009
This is an interesting article, I live in Coachella, do you know if there is a city, or county incentive program to replace one's lawn with a desert scenery? i'm planning to do it anyways, but i thought I'd heard or read somewhere about something like that. anyways, just thought you might know. thanks
at 15:04 on July 21st, 2008
I love that title...
at 18:44 on July 21st, 2008
This lawn was receiving special care as this yard was the site of our Febuary 08 WEDDING AND RECEPTION. LOCATION WAS SANTA ROSA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
mahm has contributed a photo to this story.
at 19:05 on July 21st, 2008
This is where a driveway and small strip of lawn once lived. Now it houses raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, a fig tree and tons of perennials. Whenever we leave the house we do a little grazing before we head on our way.
wholeclothdesigns has contributed a photo to this story.
at 06:06 on July 22nd, 2008
kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 07:12 on July 22nd, 2008
superspark has contributed a photo to this story.
at 07:15 on July 22nd, 2008
kate, I like this story. It's good stuff. I'll take it even further. Stop razing wilderness areas to put in golf courses. Start using something other than grass for the fairways in urban golf courses.Astroturf springs to mind - but a new kind made of something other than plastic.Bamboo? Cotton?Old Kleenex cartons? Something that doesn't require tons of fertilizer and cities of water.
at 22:04 on July 22nd, 2008
Good point, I forgot about all those Golf courses that really are a waist of land and resources and this with out mentioning all the Chemicals used on them!