Watershed Texas

Lawns are boring. There, I said it. A look out the window at an expanse of emerald green has no allure for me. There are no attractions there for butterflies, songbirds, or honeybees, either—they would starve or not even bother to make a fly over. To say a person dislikes a lawn borders on heresy to many. After all, when we say the word landscape, most of us conjure up that big swath of a perfectly mowed, managed, monoculture. Yes, monoculture, as in one plant species. In fact, more than forty million acres, roughly the size of New York State, are covered in it, making lawns, or turf grass, our largest irrigated crop. As much as 238 gallons of water per person, per day is applied to turf grasses in America. For homeowners, because lawn care does not consume much of their household budget, they tend to use more, lots more.

With much of the country experiencing drought, lawns have been under attack recently for the copious amounts of water it takes to maintain them. According to a recent article in the NY Times, August 11, 2013, cities Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mesa, Arizona have initiated program to pay residents to remove their turf. Los Angeles expects to save 47 million gallons of water each year with their lawn rebate program. Closer to home, Austin fines its residents $475 if they are caught irrigating their yards during daylight hours. Restrictions for outside water use in the Houston area are always looming.

Besides being water guzzlers, lawn areas are not very efficient at retaining water from rainfall or irrigation. Often the soil beneath is very compacted due to the naturally high clay content of our soils, the impact of heavy equipment during construction and frequent foot traffic.  Compared to perennials, shrubs and trees, a lawn’s shallower root system makes it more difficult for water to penetrate deeper into the soil. The thought is that lawns absorb a mere one-tenth the rainfall than a natural or garden area might.

In my small hometown, everyone had lawns in the front and backyards. The scent of newly clipped grass still takes me back. Yet, more appealing to me were spaces beyond the mowed areas like the wooded areas and open fields where I created makeshift forts, turned over every log and leaf, and strained to distinguish the shushing sounds made by the wind whisking through the tall pines. That green grassy carpet was fine for spreading out a blanket and reading my latest Nancy Drew mystery, but the places for real life adventures lay in the natural areas. In the aforementioned article, a mother staunchly defended her turf saying that unless there was an emerald lawn, kids would have no reason to get away from their electronic devices and go outside. To my mind, a swath of green grass alone would not provide enough enticement.

Looking beyond the conventional lawn may be difficult. However, the recent passage of Texas Senate Bill 198 removes several stumbling blocks to reducing a lawn’s size and generates possibilities. As a result of the bill, homeowner associations can no longer prevent residents from installing water conserving landscapes or using alternatives to traditional turf grasses–two attractive reasons for incorporating more native plants into the landscape. Once established, native plants require less water and less maintenance. There is the misconception that native plants are messy; however, when given the same care required of any garden, they fit nicely into casual or even more formal settings. A landscape that combines a variety of native plants becomes a haven for the many birds and butterflies that enchant us and for the critters that keep mosquitoes and other insect pests at bay. Adding meandering pathways throughout the new landscape creates places ready-made for exploration and discovery by children and adults alike.

Which brings me back to my original premise; lawns are boring. There is no time like the present to cultivate an attitude of natural curiosity and water conservation.