Brown lawns in Colorado? (Denver, Grand Junction: HOA, crime, hotel)

[Charles]

A horticulture question.

I am here in my Arlington, VA hotel room. Today I noticed the lawns in the DC area are green. It is January. There are a few very small patches of snow in shadowed areas. Today it was in the 30s - not that much different temperature wise from Colorado. There are flowers (obviously planted my landscapers) alive. I don't think people are watering their lawns either.

Why are the lawns green here and not in Colorado? Colorado is higher and less humid but in January it would seem both regions should either be green or brown.

[nelumbo]

It rains in DC. I know they got a lot of rain a few weeks ago when I was there. It is also nowhere near as cold at night there as in CO. Lawns in DC will sometimes turn brown in late summer if it is both hot and dry. There is not a strong seasonal signal in precipitation in DC - they get about 10 inches of rain per season (40+ inches avg per year). In contrast, DEN averages less than 16 inches precip per year, with strong seasonality - the least precipitation is Dec-Jan-Feb, with only about 1/2 inch per month during winter. DC gets 3+ inches per month on average in the winter.

[BlueWillowPlate]

What nelumbo said.
Brown lawns are the Colorado norm in winter.
When we lived in Denver, we had zero lawn in the back, and got rid of as much of our front lawn as we possibly could (without attracting the wrath of our neighbors.)
Some folks plant Buffalo grass. (broken link) It still goes brown in winter, but tolerates drought better than Kentucky bluegrass.

[Sters]

I live in Jersey, my mom outside of DC. We get a ton of rain in the winter/spring. It's also why we have a ton of bugs. I'd take the brown if it meant no bugs!!!!

[Katarina Witt]

Well, it doesn't mean no bugs, though there are less than in the east.

DC is simply a wetter area, period. The grass doesn't turn as brown before it goes dormant (if it goes dormant at all).

[esya]

I moved here in 1971 from Ohio and it did not rain for 10 months. Snow does not deliver as much moisture in an arid climate. It is always brown here in the winter. Even the mountains are brown except the brownish green of pine trees. In fact, there is a bit of political tension here over people in the suburbs and cities watering their lawns when agricultural or even commercial needs get short shrift.

[CosmicWizard]

Green grass, or brown grass....in the winter depends a great deal on the TYPE of grass. I spent 16 winters in Virginia Beach where winters are significantly warmer than DC winters. Fortunately, my lawn was always brown in the winter, whereas some of my neighbors planted lawns that stayed green all thru the winter. Poor idiots had to mow grass all winter long while my mower sat idle in the shed from late October until early April. Why anyone would WANT a green lawn in the winter is beyond me. While my neighbors were out pushing their noise polluting mowers back and forth I had the freedom to use my time for more enjoyable pursuits.

Fortunately, my lawn in Grand Junction is brown all winter long. If it wasn't for the HOA requiring a green lawn, I'd let it revert back to natural desert vegetation. What a crime against nature it is to have a requirement wasting a valuable resource like water on an artificial lawn in a desert environment. We water it just enough to keep the HOA off our backs.