by Paul Wallis

Created on: May 28, 2007

GRASSES AREN'T LAWNS

There's a fundamental misconception about this issue of banning lawns to save water. Simple fact of botany: some grasses can handle drought, others can't. There are a lot of lawn mixes which are made of grasses from temperate zones, and they are comparative water gluttons. They also don't handle the dry climates and the lack of humidity very well. Doesn't matter how much you water them, they'll fall to bits.

The lawn, as a feature, is a relatively new development. Originally, it was for rich people, based on the European stately homes, and it was mainly kept clipped by grazing animals and armies of gardeners. In suburbia, it was adopted as "what to do with the bits that don't have a house on it". Eventually it and the lawnmower became cultural icons, and now it's considered a natural part of the home.

However, the art of lawn keeping involves a bit more than that, as most suburbanites know. Just keeping the thing alive, under normal conditions, can be a challenge, so much so that some people literally concrete over everything which could possibly be suspected of harboring a lawn. I know one place where having concreted over the yard, they painted it green Food coloring green Classy That's one of the options for not having a lawn. Maybe we can do a bit better than that.

Bizarre as that might sound, as land management goes, concrete beats a dead lawn. There is nothing good about a desiccated lawn falling to bits. You wind up with a bit of soil that will also fall to bits. The exposed soil will also heat, and help dry out the garden. Apparently the laws of thermodynamics don't feel obliged to respect microclimates or the rest of the theories. Heat transfer through soil isn't a mystery. Particularly sandy soil, which contains a lot of silica, which is a heat glutton. In Australia, we have days of 5 or 0 per cent humidity, and I promise you, the word "dry" barely describes its effect on gardens and lawns. Every bit of cover counts.

Grasses are soil holders. In dry climates, they're about all that really does hold the loams together. You'll see in the big grasslands that they're the dominant plants, and it's generally because they're about all that can survive. They're that much better adapted to their environment.

Some grasses grow well in very dry conditions, and can tolerate severe droughts. They're the answer to the water saving situation. The idea of banning them has missed the bus completely. Unless you want a reasonably good imitation of Death

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