I have definite opinions about green grassy lawns. They are pleasant to walk on, great for picnicking, superior for sports, and pretty darn boring to look at.
If your lawn is solely for gazing purposes, here are some thoughts:
-They require more watering than any landscaping feature save a pond.
-They require year-round maintenance (mowing and edging), as often as once a week in the summer months. And if you skip a week or two it becomes very obvious.
-Many varieties of grass require regular doses of fertilizer in order to maintain their health.
For these reasons and a few others, my wife and I have bid farewell to the front lawn. A couple weeks ago the grass was covered with a layer of cardboard followed by a layer of compost and topped with wood chips. This coming winter we will be contracting to install drought-tolerant trees and shrubs, native bunch grasses, and perennial and annual California wildflowers. Once it gets established (1-2 years), it will require only occasional summer watering, and none in the winter. The maintenance requirements will change: Rather than spending 20-30 minutes a week mowing between May and September, we plan on spending an afternoon trimming, pruning, etc. 4-5 days a year. Best of all, I can look forward to butterflies, native bees, hummingbirds, the sweet smell of spring blossoms, and a rainbow of colors appearing throughout the seasons.
We plan on keeping the lawn in the backyard (where we picnic, play, and walk barefoot). Here is what we do to conserve water when caring for the grass:
--The sprinklers are timed to water in the morning, just before sunrise. This ensures the maximum amount of water will fall on the grass, rather than evaporate in the sun. Night or evening watering is not recommended, as it can encourage mold and fungus.
--The sprinklers are turned off during rainier weeks and during the winter months.
--Sprinklers are maintained such that they water the lawn, rather than the concrete patio or the fence.
--The existing backyard grass will eventually be replaced with a more drought-tolerant, native blend of grasses that will require even less water.
Thank you to Gaia Creations Ecological Landscaping for providing much of the information that is included in this post.
Next post: How I Killed My Lawn
About Me: Jeremy wears many hats, including substitute teacher, school garden educator, hike leader, youth group advisor, Gardener's Swap Meet coordinator, husband, and father. His lifelong quests include the search for the perfect burrito, and more recently, how to sprout an avocado tree from a pit.
I just don't understand how one can gaze at a lawn?
It's green and bristly. Does it some how contain a therapeutic quality?
You are in saying that grass is watered more often than not.
Why don't people realise from this that in order to help the effects of drought etc they can install an artificial grass lawn? They drain just like any other decent lawn look pretty 100% of the time and require asolutely no attention at all.
Surely this can save on the hassle of having to sprinkle at certain times of the day and help the environment a little more?
I, for one, prefer the natural over the artificial. It is hard to imagine that a hummingbird or butterfly would choose to visit a home with an artificial lawn, and I would trade having to do a little bit of annual maintenance for the opportunity to smell spring flowers as I go to fetch my mail.
As far as "lawn gazing," I can only assume that that is the main purpose for a lawn that never sees a picnic basket, a soccerball, or a dog with a frisbee. But don't ask me, ask someone who has a front lawn that they never use.
Have you checked out Eco-Lawn which is the ultimate sustainable lawn. It is drought tolerant, needs little watering or mowing, no fertilizers--and is the ultimate low maintenance lawn. They are a client of mine, so i am declaring my bias- but they have a product that lives up to their claims. You might want to check it out at www.wildflowerfarm.com