This summer, Dad and I looked out over the lawn, and I suggested we stop watering it and replace it with fake grass and other low-water-consumption plants. Last week, finally, we began the process of letting the lawn die. Due to the way our yard is laid out, the lawn isn't visible to anyone but us-- the front yard is all plants and tanbark and trees and bushes. We're about to join a few other neighbors on our block in being grass-free. We feel great about it.
We live in California, where a great drought is taking place. We're in our fourth drought year, and our reservoirs and aquifers and running out. Grass, or at least the kind used in lawns, is a swamp plant that thrives in wet, water-logged soil. A grass lawn needs to be watered heavily every day to keep the soil damp enough to support it-- it's basically the worst possible plant to coat your land in, if there's a drought.
We will replace our lawn with bushes and flowers and tanbark and some fake turf. It'll look good, and we'll save money in the long run, especially if water prices rise. I hope that others in California do the same.
What is likely to be the fourth straight year of drought has arrived and it is real. The numbers don’t lie. The state is in a drought and nearly all of it is in a severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, an arm of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
After three-plus years of record low rain and snowfall, the Golden State is now closer to a pale beige. And the water shortage is already hurting agriculture and threatening to kill our economy — not just our precious lawns
In time, it may be one of the factors that helps keep this state habitable.
I live in California as well and I find it amazing the kinds of greenery we have here... because in SoCal none of it should be here... It should be a desert...
Especially now that the drought has really caught the media's attention here, it's been more glaring to me to think about the extravagance of being able to see so many trees, lawns, golf courses, grass etc. when none of it is native or sustainable without lots of water being supplied.
On September 30 2014 05:57 Gamegene wrote: I live in California as well and I find it amazing the kinds of greenery we have here... because in SoCal none of it should be here... It should be a desert...
Especially now that the drought has really caught the media's attention here, it's been more glaring to me to think about the extravagance of being able to see so many trees, lawns, golf courses, grass etc. when none of it is native or sustainable without lots of water being supplied.
SSON! WE LIVE IN SAME PLACE?
YOU IN COACHELLA RITE?
Wassup
Yeah we never had front grass XD and then some neighbors got pissitude and we got to say and let the grass WE JUST PLANTED AND INSTALLED IRRIGATION FOR die!
HAHAAHAHAHAH SUX THAT PHUULZ DROUGHT BOOYAH!!
...
Oh wait you are not from TL Mafia.
Ehem.
So yes, I live in a fairly upscale neighborhood in Bermuda Dunes (because I am so awesome; see, I live with my parents) and we have a ton of stuck up, wealthy neighbors. Now, we have fruit trees & stuff you can water on drip because our well isn't the strongest pump etc. etc. so we don't want to blow through water like maniacs. Besides bare spaces outside your driveway are awesome for parking on.
Anyway some stupid half-young party animal neighbors moved in recently and put up big walls & gates & lawns & basically BS
and sent code enforcement on us. They were gonna fine us heavily and we can't afford that because we USED to be rich and grandfathered in (that's kind of the real reason the grass is gone SHHHH) but my older brother works for a landscaping company so we put some kind of curvy decorative little grassy knolls on our inside driveway hills.
Then drought
we could stop watering and look politically righteous too
But srsly BH
Put in Pine trees! They don't need a whole lot of water, they smell great, and they make that awesome whoosh sound that video games use for wind in real wind.
If that is too big, put in Cassio Reina (I am unsure of that spelling) they are smaller but still get tall and are just as awesome and don't need much water at all.
Don't need to throw out cash for astro turf that gets dirty and needs to be cleaned and stuff. Don't bother with it I have experiences.
Grow a fruit tree if people don't like the conifer.
You might not be BH this is for the proverbial other pplz
use cactus! Cactus bloom looks amazing.
And stupid kids get caught in it and you can go rescue them and tell them get off your property and quit throwing cigarettes on the dirt, that you do actually want to keep the place kind of clean, and when people try to go to some idiot neighbor's party nobody will park there especially if you put rocks by it to "look more natural"
Especially the teddy bear choilla you can throw the dead pieces at your stupid neighbors if you wear gloves. That stuff moves in on moisture, even blood, it's super effective should be a pokemon. ...
this is actually true. I might write a blog about Cameroon refugees and out-of-house folks and kids who got rounded up by CPS because they had evil parents, but later. Us kids were the trolls XD
On September 30 2014 12:41 vult wrote: It's the life to live in the desert. Grass is completely optional long as norcal is having a drought lol.
And you have no snow, or leaves in the fall, or RAIN ALL THE TIME or fog :o That shit kills EVERYTHING.
*thumps chest* FTFY
There is reason these houses are here and used by all manner of fashion magazines
On September 30 2014 12:41 vult wrote: Sucks to live in the desert. Gotta water your grass lol.
But at least you have no snow :o That shit kills our grass for us.
Grass is a nice, green touch to owning a home. It also brings nature a little closer to our mostly urban centers. So I totally understand why people like having a lawn in their yard, and why culture started to swing this way - as a way to "decorate" our yards and streets.
However, having a lawn - especially in a place like California where there is a drought - is actually very harmful to the economical and natural environment of that state. As I understand it, people were making decisions - like having a lawn - because it was the social norm and not necessarily because it was the healthiest thing for the economic or environmental structures. I believe having a lawn in California makes about as much sense as growing rice in California (which was very popular back in the 70's and 80's). Rice takes an immense amount of water to grow, and it made no sense at all for companies to start growing and exporting rice from California, but they started doing it anyways...
These days - like the OP is suggesting - "zero scaping" is a much better alternative for our society in general.
I am extremely encouraged by the OP because I believe that it is time that we start to make more concious and healthy decisions around issues like using water, food, money, etc and all of the other resources that are limited. Lets face it, we are going to over populate the earth by mid 2020's and having excess water, food, money, etc will not be an option any more. If societies become more aware of this and start to simplify, we could save ourselves a huge headache as humans continue to overpopulate and over-consume.
What you have to realize is that Calfornia has had free water funded by US taxpayers for the entirety of the history of the state. That's what the wealth of the state is built on. I highly recommend a book _Cadillac Desert_ about the story of water in the American West... it's very eye-opening.
Another important thing to realize is that the building of completely irrational hydrological projects is a major component of the history of Keynesian stimulus in the United States... if you are an environmentalist you should be anti-Keynesian
EPT
and let the grass WE JUST PLANTED AND INSTALLED IRRIGATION FOR die! 
