Now That You’ve Ripped Out The Grass…
DESIGN | by DEBRA PRINZING
LOSING THE LAWN DOES NOT MEAN you will be shunned by your neighbors. In fact, the “anti-lawn” is a hip and sustainable alternative to the resource-gobbling ritual of daily irrigation and frequent applications of fertilizer.
© DEBRA PRINZING
It’s hard to break off our emotional connection to lawns, but there are healthy ― and beautiful ― alternatives. While you wean yourself (or your spouse) from green turf, you’ll discover an exciting array of groundcovers and no-grass (or less-grass) design solutions.
Here are five ideas to try:
- Grow an “eco-lawn,” such as a custom-blended seed mix that fits the conditions for your region. For example, Portland, Ore.-based Hobbs & Hopkins Ltd. developed “Fleur de Lawn,” a meadow-like mix of small flowers and low-growing clover combined with a specialty variety of dwarf perennial rye grass. Once established, it is naturally self-fertilizing, requires no watering and needs infrequent mowing.
- Learn to live with “golden.” Allow your lawn to go dormant in the summer. When cooler weather and seasonal showers return in the fall, the grass will revive and turn a brilliant green, irrigated naturally by rain.
- Adjust your watering practices. Lawns require more water than other plants, so separate the lawn-watering system from trees, shrubs and flowerbeds.
- Shrink the green. Gradually reduce the size of your lawn, replacing sections of grass with native ornamentals or low-water plants like succulents. You can satisfy your urge for green with alternatives such as thyme, which is visually appealing, aromatic and even edible.
- Replace grass with gravel. I ripped out all of the lawn in my backyard and created a Mediterranean-inspired gravel garden. The warm gold gravel covers all the pathways that surround planted beds, borders and islands. The gravel is permeable, uses no water and is weed-free (thanks to a hidden layer of landscape cloth underneath it).
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Debra: Thanks for spreading the word and helping the lawn reform movement inch forward. Lawns are so ingrained in suburbia, but it’s heartening to see them shrinking, even disappearing square foot by square foot.
We moved into our house in the 90’s. A half acre of bountiful garden surrounded by 4 acres of woods. The lawn was just a patch of 150 sq feet. When our Jack was about 7 or 8 he began to play sports and the lawn became his private practice field.
Even then there was a movement away from lawns but I resisted the trend. Home-runs had become too easy for Jack. I began to expand the lawn, base-by-base until, at 1500 sq feet, it had reached the physical limits of my stamina and the length of an extension cord.
The huge lawn was a great space for him, but also for us. Entertaining on a grand scale with concerts, fire dancing and drum circles. Once, we even hosted a friend’s wedding on the lawn.
As Jack and his pals grew they had to move to larger fields in public parks. We, too, began to host smaller parties (the fire dancing cost us many friends). The huge lawn was no longer necessary. Slowly, it began to shrink, taken over, shrub-by-shrub, bed-by-bed, tree-by-tree. It’s now back to a small patch of lawn which friends find comfortable in its ‘greeness’. I find it very comfortable because its easy to maintain: Jack mows the lawn.