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Grasses—green, neatly trimmed, symbols of civic virtue—shaped the national landscape. They have now outlived their purpose.
"The seeds for most of the turf grasses that carpet the surface of the U.S.—your Kentucky blues (originally, actually, from Europe and northern Asia), your Bermudas (originally from Africa), your Zoysias (originally from East Asia), your hybrids thereof—are generally not native to the U.S. Which means that, while the grasses can certainly survive here, they will probably not, on their own, thrive. A lawn of American Dream Perma-Green requires, generally, more water than natural rainfall provides. It requires soil whose nutrient content is plumped up by fertilizer. It requires, in some cases, pesticides. And yet symbiosis is on the turf’s side, despite and because of all that, because we need the grasses as much as they need us. We spend our money and our resources and our time cultivating our carpets of green not just because we want to, but because we are expected to. The expense is a tribute we pay to our fellow Americans, the rough equivalent of taxes and immunizations and pleases and thank yous and coughing into our arms rather than into the air. To maintain a lawn is—or, more specifically, has been—to pay fealty to the future we are forging, together.
The longer I/we live here, the less lawn we have. Takes a lot of homework to figure out what will work best with little extra amenities, but it can most certainly be done. Anyone wanna buy a good used lawn tractor?
Our house here in Toronto has a paved car parking spot at the front , where a lawn used to be located.
The back yard is 80 percent pavers, with two small flower beds. No trees at all. Watering the flowers takes about 5 minutes. Most of my neighbours have similar arrangements, except for one guy who has a front yard that is 100 percent agricultural development.....he grows every type of veggie known to man, and has so many plants that from the street, you can`t see the house. Did I mention he is old school Italian.....grin.
The city of Toronto is encouraging home owners to get rid of their manicured lawns, and plant wild grasses, and other things that don`t need constant watering. And remember that this city is located right on the shores of Lake Ontario, which is 50 miles across, and 190 miles long, so we are not short of water, at all.
Our house here in Toronto has a paved car parking spot at the front , where a lawn used to be located.
The back yard is 80 percent pavers, with two small flower beds. No trees at all. Watering the flowers takes about 5 minutes. Most of my neighbours have similar arrangements, except for one guy who has a front yard that is 100 percent agricultural development.....he grows every type of veggie known to man, and has so many plants that from the street, you can`t see the house. Did I mention he is old school Italian.....grin.
The city of Toronto is encouraging home owners to get rid of their manicured lawns, and plant wild grasses, and other things that don`t need constant watering. And remember that this city is located right on the shores of Lake Ontario, which is 50 miles across, and 190 miles long, so we are not short of water, at all.
Jim B.
All watering does is make it grow so you have to keep buying gas all summer to mow it. Just buy gas once in the springtime, dump it all over your lawn, and set yourself free for a year.
I can't figure out why folks in my part of the US don't use our native buffalo grass for lawns. Sure, it's more expensive in the beginning, but it doesn't need watering and only needs to be mowed perhaps twice a year. What's not to like?
Little by little we are getting rid of our turf. Our backyard is at the edge of a heavily wooded space and it does not receive enough sunlight to support grass so we laid newspaper, cardboard, topsoil and mulch over the whole thing and killed the turf without herbicides or digging.
It was very easy to get rid of this way.
Now we can plant whatever we choose that will like the natural light conditions there.
We plan to do the same in other parts of our yard that are not visible to the road and reduce the turf and its demands for excessive resources. Eventually we will have only small areas of turf that will enhance the groundcovers, shrubs and trees.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChessieMom
I love my green lawn.
Me too, in fact I expanded it this year. Of course, we get 44" of rain here. Normally, I have to water 3-4 times in July and August, to keep it somewhat green. I only have to mow in the fall and spring. In winter is stops growing when it's close to or below freezing, and in summer when it gets much less water it slows down. This summer has been hotter and dryer than normal, so I have probably watered 6 times since late June, but have not mowed in about 6 weeks. We just had a week of rain, so I will mow again this weekend. In 21 years the only chemical I have used are granulated moss killer, which is iron, and safe for the environment. I never fertilize or use week killers. Having lawns in a desert or subtropical climate with less than 10-15" of rain is wasteful, especially in areas with occasional droughts.
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