To my neighbours, I love you and think you’re all incredibly wonderful people with very big hearts and caring souls.  With that said, please don’t be mad at me when I call you out for leaving your sprinkler system on during that rainy spell we had last week.  You remember, that crazy downpour that lasted at least 8 hours and refilled birdbaths and potholes and wreaked havoc with my hair on my routine power walk?   Yeah, I saw that silly sprinkler going back and forth across your gorgeous viridian lawn and thought how sad it was that the water coming from the hose was being so carelessly wasted like that.  I figure you probably have your system on a timer so it goes off whether Mother Nature is watering or not, but is that really fair?  Our planet doesn’t have an unlimited supply of fresh water and it’s criminal to see it senselessly wasted!

I’ve since found out that it takes 200 gallons of water a day, per citizen, to water all the lawns and golf courses in the United States.  That’s crazy when you know how desperate some countries are for clean water and that a lot of our global citizens have to walk for miles every day just to collect a few much needed jugs from a communal pump.  Here in Canada I’ve seen people use water pressure to jettison leaves off their driveways instead of getting out a broom.  In the States, and I’m sure the numbers here are not too far off, 60% of residential water usage goes to taking care of the garden and lawn.  This can’t continue if we want our natural resources to last forever.

Here’s a great little example of the type of landscaping I’m into right now.  It’s called xeriscaping and it’s all about ripping out our thirsty lawns and replacing the grass with drought tolerant native plants that require very little care and attention.   Already, in the desert cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, new home developments are not allowed to plant any lawn in the front yard and only 50% in the back.

This sloped front yard used to be a pain to mow but now it’s a really beautiful, low maintenance feature garden that requires no extra watering.  The mulch and rocks hold the moisture in and slow down erosion of the soil.  I just think it’s really zen looking.

I’m not saying that everybody should head out their front door next weekend and start tearing out their grass.  What I am advocating is that we stop being so obsessed with having a perfectly bright green lawn throughout the hottest parts of the year.  Let’s quit wasting our precious water and go truly GREEN!  What’s wrong with letting the grass get a bit brown in the summer?  Stop fighting the natural order of things and let the moss take over if that’s been a problem.  It can actually look pretty good.  That rain that hit us last week perked up my moss-riddled lawn substantially, in fact.

I found a really terrific website that gives great information on how, why and where it makes sense to replace your turf carpet with natural, easy care plantings if you’d like to check it out and get some ideas.  At the very least make sure you’re not sprinkling the grass when it’s raining outside.  Everyone can see it and you are soooo busted!    It was the fancy pants, highfalutin’ Europeans who brought the idea of manicured lawns to North America.   I mean this in the most respectful way, but it was a status thing to have a perfect lawn and it’s too bad that tradition has been transplanted here where in many places we don’t have the climate for maintaining a great lawn.  It’s draining our continent dry.