This is what a holiday card from a lawn reform activist looks like – in this case from Tom Engelman of the Grassroots Program in California. Attached was this extra message: that his patch of Buffalograss in Santa Monica had received no watering during December-January at all, and only every two weeks or so the rest of the year.
So I wrote to ask about this organic colorant – like what's up with that? And Tom wrote back:
Personally, I'm good with the brief (60-90 day) seasonal changes to my Buffalograss (around the rocks). However, I used the colorant as a teaching tool because 95% of folks in the West want year round green. So I want to show how to have your cake while turning off the water/mower for a few months. The picture shows a test of two organic colorants — one lighter and one darker. One was from this company. I'm still hunting down the ingredients for the other colorant but remember it being certified 'organic' by a California nursery chain.
NOW here's my question: If it's true that "95% of the folks in the West want year-round green," somebody needs to tell them they're in the ARID WEST, for crissakes. Time to change some norms.
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You're right, we're in a serious state of denial in California. We rhapsodize about our beautiful golden hills dotted with oaks in the summer, but when it comes to our own gardens, we prefer to take a pass on embracing that natural beauty.
My UC Verde lawn is dormant right now and seems fine to me. My front garden has evergreen sweetbox, flowering maple and various phormiums to provide color and structure in winter – that's plenty for me. I planted some anemones and daffodils in the lawn and if they come up (50/50 chance – I wasn't very careful when I planted) that should add a bit of late winter interest as well.
Times ARE changing, but we're not there yet.
Here in Seattle, we change our name from The Emerald City to The Amber City in the summer. Contrary to popular rumor, we get almost no rain in the summer. Lawns that are watered stand out among those that do not.
Most of my lawn does not get additional water, only the sections that are sandwiched in between beds that I water. As those beds become more established, they will receive less water, and the grass will be less green in those sections as well. It survives.
Some people in northern California intentionally waste water becuase they don't want LA to drink it all. Even in the super liberal and "aware" town of Davis, at least half of the yards (plus campus) are flood irrigated with absurd amounts of water rain or shine, year round.
Yeah!Most of the people love to see the garden in green because this is the color of nature.Today is the world of hectic schedule and we are busy in technology world so there must be some green thing in life which can relax your body and soul.So garden has to be in green.
Is it too harsh to say that lawns are a yawn? Actually I don't have a problem with low growing meadows or cut mixed plantings for a play area but I am not going to care for the grass.
My brother-in-law lives in Arizona where he has green all year! He has green pebbles and rocks as his lawn. From a few feet away it looks natural!
All his plants are desert plants and require no additional watering and his landscape still looks very nice!
I love green, but grew up in the humid, rainy Southeast. Now that I'm in the arid West, I find it frustrating that my efforts to live within my climate are hampered by so many who should know better – the city ( who until recently saw 'xeric' & thought 'fire-hazard'), the neighbors (aka the 'lawn mafia') & worst of all, the husband (doesn't want our house to stick out ). Slowly things are changing, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as more folks start to think 'green' they won't mind if it means their lawns are brown ( or non-existent as I'd prefer !)
Not only is it more sustainable to use native plants and plants that don't require a lot of water, rather than lawns, in California, but the fact is landscaping with natives is more interesting ad unique-looking than grass!
We have similar problems with grass and water here in Barcelona (sorry for my english, by the way). In spite of our "mediterranean" proud, landscaping is mostly lawn oriented to such an extent, that sinthetic grass (!) is becoming a bestseller in the search for "nature". But we are trying hard and, thanks to California xeriscaping things are also changing slowly. So please, LauraBee, Deirdre, Susan… don't give up! We won't from this side of the ocean.
Thanks so much for sharing this story. I actually just made a presentation yesterday about the limited resources in our world. Water scarcity is becoming a serious problem, and a lot of people are still not aware of that. Here in the States we are talking about watering the lawn and keeping the grass green, but there are so many places in the world where people don't eve have clean, drinking water… I think this is definitely an interesting issue worth of thinking.