When will the madness stop...
Our American affection for green lawns has always puzzled me, since I rarely played on it and as I grew older ended up being the one mowing it. Elizabet Kolbert explores the origin and ongoing cost of lawns in America in this New Yorker article .Given that water is our next challenged resources, it's not clear whether this staple of suburban living like the remote cal de sac can persist. The greatest irony is that this symbol of nature is perhaps the most unnatural form of landscaping around.
posted by Charles @ 12:13 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
the problem with lawns is that they are very expensive to replace. even if you do it yourself, the cost of materials to xeriscape or otherwise fill up that space is prohibitive for a lot of homeowners like myself. i hate my lawn, but can't afford to let the bloody thing die and put something more hearty and less thirsty in there. so i grudgingly water it as much as i have to to keep it alive -- but not pretty, which must annoy the neighbors no end. it's one of the great annoyances of home ownership. the next time i buy a home, whenever that is, i'm going to prioritize the low-to-no maintenance landscape at the top of the list. it's just so wasteful.
Diana, check out "Gardens not Lawns" -- there's even a book club discussion of it going on right now. You can replace parts of your lawn gradually and unless there's food growing on it, stop watering it - that is such a waste! Buck the system! :)
I think this is why we need more parks/village greens. Lawns are nice, so we can have one, and make it public. Kids can play soccer, adults can read a book under a tree, everyone benefits for a public lawn. Not so a private lawn.
thanks jenn. it'll never happen, though -- i detest gardening of all forms, even vegetables. i am not a green thumb of any description. i should have just bought a loft. :P
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