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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters install fake lawns, for every hour we're not running gas-powered mowers we'll avert the greenhouse gases of 730,000 hour-long car trips.
COCKTAIL FACT
In political lingo, "astroturfing" refers to campaigns that appear to be grassroots, but are actually highly planned.
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home › tip library › Synthetic Grass
Desert-bound Biters: think fake lawn lovers have gone crazy from the heat?
The Bite
Fake lawn lovers have fought stereotypes for years, but maybe the rest of us are the crazy ones. With no brown spots, less air pollution and lower H2O, gas and electric bills, the grass always seems greener on their side of the fence... especially now with the new-n-improved options.The Benefits
- Save water. On average, 50%-70% of home water use goes to lawns and gardens.
- Save gas. Accidental gas spillage from filling lawn equipment each year wastes more gas than the Exxon Valdez tanker catastrophe.
- Stop climate change. Landfilled grass clippings release tons of the greenhouse gas methane and mowers account for 5% of US air pollution.
- From Vegas to Phoenix, get evergreen lawns made from recycled materials, no mowing necessary.
Personally Speaking
Jen doesn't bother mowing the pretty, non-irrigated wild grass growing around her Montana home, while Heather's SF backyard is so small she's best off sticking to her patio-bound Chia Pet.Wanna Try?
Before you install a faux lawn, consider an even better choice: native plants that absorb CO2 without much H2O involved.- EasyTurf - blades of "grass" are held up by a recycled shoes'n'tires base ($8-$15/sq ft).
- SYNLawn - incorporating 55%-65% green materials, such as post-consumer recycled plastic and non-petroleum based polyurethane ($4-$6/sq ft).
- AstroLawn - from the originators of the stuff, AstroTurf, it's made using recycled tires ($2-$4/sq ft).
- Ideal Bite's Lawnmowers Tip - if fake grass just isn't your thing, check our best-of lawnmower list.
Feb 22,2007
Sponsor
All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
On Native Plants, Water and Big Brother
So
yeah, I grew up in Orange County, CA, in a gated community (and I'm
still having trouble proving to friends that I'm not the most sheltered
guy in San Francisco).
Living
in a gated community is weird for a number of reasons - security jeeps
(not hybrids) are always roving, for one. But growing up, the thing
that most irritated me is the fact that our community didn't let you
grow native plants in your yard. Chaparral-type
flora is normal for Orange County, but the community association wanted
a more New England/Old Country vibe - big lawns, water-intensive
flowering bushes and manmade ponds. None of which, of course, are
actually meant to exist in the climate.
So
I was especially annoyed when those roving security jeeps stopped on
the cul-de-sac adjacent to our street, scoped out our backyard from two
houses over (did they stand on the jeeps, or what?), then sent my
parents a cease-and-desist letter to the effect of, "How could you
betray our association's trust, and let a native bush grow in your
backyard? We'll be watching." This, in spite of the fact that the bush
was officially not visible from the street, unless, maybe, you were
crazy enough to stand on your jeep and peer into a backyard two houses
over from an adjacent cul-de-sac. And then only just.
The
occasional family trip to Palm Springs compounded my dislike for
excessive non-native flora and (this is gonna sound harsh) misuse of
water. Come on, people - lawns just weren't meant to exist in the
desert. Which is why I'm pro-fake lawn. When I think about them, I
can't help but think about the façades at Universal Studios, though.
I'm not sure I'll ever have a lawn, period, but I'm totally rooting for all those desert-bound Biters who decide to fake it.
-Toshio... off to stand on a Zipcar and peer into people's backyards...Biter Comments...
What about Xeriscaping?, planting native species of grasses that require very little water. Desert kibbutz lands in Israel seem to do a fine job choosing varieties that remain green yet don't gulp down the liquid. I second the wonderment about fake lawns and water runoff.
I favor stones or shells for a non-burnable area around the house. It lets water through, and uses natural materials. Weeds do have to be pulled from time to time, but nothing serious. Kids can play on it, too, but not in bare feet. Consider using these materials for all or part of your lawn.
We moved into a neighborhood that is oozing with covenants (this was not disclosed to us at closing) and found out most of our neighbors are fans of the Chemlawn corporation. My kids have learned to ditch indoors when they see a truck in the area (no poison cocktail for our lungs thanks!). The existing lawn or lack thereof when we bought the house was the neighborhood nightmare. Lawns are a must here since we're not allowed to plant natively (sad but true) so we have taken an all natural approach to our lawn. Burning of invasives, corn gluten purchased at the local feed mill for weed control/fertilizer and hand weeding. Granted, we don't have the greenest lawn as we have a sprinkling of clover, dandelions and the likes here and there, but the kids pick me the most loving "flower" boquets and we can walk barefoot knowing our soil is safe and healthy. The lawn has come a long way from the weeds and dirt spots we started with. Not an image of perfection in our neighbors eyes, but the most attractive to the local birds and butterflies by far! Point being, if you have to have lawn or want lawn, do it organically!
Its true Americans have an unnatural obsession with their lawns. I took a gardening class with a friend who's mother grew up in rural Europe and we laughed about the fact that her family used a goat to manage the growth of grass on their lawn.
I'm sure "fake" lawns have some sort of chemicals used to make the "fake" lawn material. I also have the question of whether they are impervious. I like the native plant route better.
Here in my county, Broward, in Florida, we have a push to certify our cities as National Wildlife Habitat communities. Not all the HOAs are on board, but they are slowly learning. The NWF plans to use what we've been doing here as a model for other communities across the country.
You can certify an apartment balcony or a large yard. No project is too small. Businesses and schools can also participate. Its a community effort.
http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/
Planting for wildlife is so important in urban areas where we are rapidly developing.
http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/
You should do a tip on this.
So forget fake, go native with plants and trees, get rid of your lawn and create a habitat for wildlife.
Follow up to today's subject of grass, a great documentary film on America's obsession with lawn, see:
http://www.gimmegreen.com/home.htm#
Hats off to a great documentary film festival in Missoula, MT that ended last night!
I work for a water district in the desert, where fake lawns are seriously considered as a water saving device, since so many transplants who come to the desert start off wanting to bring their lawns with them.
However, there are issues with the fake grass, and the most important one is the lack of any benefit whatsoever to wildlife. The rampant development out here is rapidly depleting wildlife habitat, and fake grass does nothing to mitigate that loss of habitat.
A much better and preferred route is to go native in your landscaping. Native plantings drastically reduce water usage while providing much needed habitat for wildlife that has nowhere else to go.
My yard consists of much sand, some creosote bushes and other native plant species. It attracts quail, roadrunner, rabbits, lizards and many other local birds. None of these beautiful creatures would survive in a fake grass lawn. The fake grass also kills anything underneath it. Rabbits may try to eat it and suffer harmful consequences. Native landscaping is also much more beautiful - where I have sand during part of the year I have gorgeous, blooming wildflowers in their seasons. I do admit to having a small plot of grass out front, however it is very heat hardy and after the first year of planting has never been watered. It simply grows and thrives on its own for part of the year and we let it die out in the summer.
Fake grass would be fine in small, confined areas only of a native habitat landscape. But for the most part I would not recommend it. We also do not want to promote the image of a green grass lawn in the desert - it does not belong here and detracts from the desert's natural beauty.
Sorry girls I think you missed it on this one. But keep up the work, Ideal Bites has had many more great tips than misses!
Sincerely,
AquaLass
SoCal Desert
Garden Week is coming up in March, where we'll talk permeable pavement, xeriscaping, organic potting soils, and more. Stay tuned...
This tip puts me in the mood for spring. Would you consider doing a series of tips on organic container and hydroponic gardening? Saves water and provides a really local source of organic produce. I'd be interested in what you might find out about what containers we could re-use for this purpose which would also be healthy to grow things in.
Cheers!
So why not try permaculture and practice planting your front and backyard with food! www.pathtofreedom.com You not only eliminate the noxious emmissions from mowers, you provide yourself with organic locally grown food can replace mega agriculture products which are extremely energy intensive. If you do it right, the fruit and nut trees can shade your house in the summertime, the berry bushes can provide a beautiful edible fence, life is good, don't cover your valuable real estate with a petroleum derived product like astroturf that will kill living organisms in your soil and leave it a dead hardpan!
I live in Kentucky and am working with 5 acres. Fortunately, the community I live in requires we mow only twice a year so needless to say, native habitat gardens are the way we have gone. The county is under development pressure with many farmers selling off land for development. We are a bedroom community that has lost most of its charm due to these developments. The McMansions on a quarter acre. My fenced in back yard for the dogs is a quarter acre. Anyway, we have deliberately over the past 4 years repopulated the area with native plants. We have 5 meadows under establishment along with foundation plants which are native. We purchased the property in 1998 and started food production gardens and just quit mowing the areas for meadow establishment. Beautiful natives came up that had just been waiting to be left to grow. We have native grasses, flowers and shrubs. It is not an inexpensive venture; however, the wildlife have found us and that is all the payment we need. Our summers are hot and dry and natives have extensive root systems which make them seek out their own water. We have reduced our mowing down to walking paths and garden paths only. The grass clippings are used as mulch. We comopost everything we can and put it back into the production gardens. I gave 3 garden tours last year and some people were quite unhappy with what they saw. Neat and tidy does not give wildlife the food and shelter needed to survive and raise their young. We are certified as backyard habitats by the National Wildlife Federation and the Humane Society of the United States. We belong to Wildl-Ones which promotes the use of native plants and The Kentucky Native Plant Society. It has been well worth the time and energy to get this natural habitat garden going. We are chemical free and are working towards growing more and more of our own food. The state puts out a lot of information encouraging the use of native plants; however, many developments come with restrictions concerning grass height. What good is 5 acres of mowed lawn? Water is a scarce resource and needs to be treated as such. We need to wake up and realize how resource intensive American lawns and gardens are.
Wow. Could I ever relate to the Orange County jeep patrols. Right now I am in a losing battle with the City of Rancho Cucamonga here in SoCal over my failure to provide "green and thriving vegetation" in my front yard. Ok I'll admit, it looked brown and dry and tacky. A friend came over, cleaned up all the dead leaves and planted grass for me. When the Code Enforcement officer took pictures of my house, I caught her in the act so she came out and talked to me. She said it showed a lot of progress but now there were too many weeds among the green and thriving vegetation (which were the same height as the grass), so she could not "write off" the complaint which can lead to $1,000 fine or six months on jail as a criminal offense. At my hearing with the City Prosecutor and the CE officer, I asked for a list of what is acceptable greenery and they could not tell me that because they don't know what is a weed? Duh? My friend who went with me to the hearing said we would contact the local botanic gardens to find out what is native vegetation but there has been no response to my inquiry to them. Because of health reasons I cannot tolerate chemical killers or fertilizers. Does anyone know what is native vegetation for this semi desert area? By the way, I am not in a planned community. I keep saying I want to go back to New York City where you only had to deal with concrete and pigeons, neither of which require water or chemicals to exist).
Also, does anyone have any pink flamingoes? That way, when my code violations are resolved, I can put some birds up and really drive the neighbors nuts.
The Lawn Criminal
name not given due to fear of retaliation from the lawn police.
Lawn Criminal, your experience sounds horrific.
You might want to try the Master Gardener volunteers and horticulture agents at your local Orange County Cooperative Extension office. Their service is something they provide free to homeowners. Maybe they can point you in the right direction. Here is a web link.
http://www.uccemg.com/
Thanks for the tip...actually I am in San Bernardino County, but near to Orange County so I am sure they can give me a local for the San Berdoo office. I appreciate the suggestion and will check out the site you mentioned first.
Criminal Weed Grower...(not the smoking kind)
in Rancho
whoa! who started these comments! I am the lawn criminal of rancho....found out that summer is considered our dormant season (how do you like that). still refuse to overwater to turn everything green. thanks, everyone. just as a note, they say honeybees are endangered? well, guess what? i had to have vector control come out to empty a long neglected trash barrel containing leaves because the bees were buzzing around it for a long time but finally got unbearable. When he removed the cover, they had a very substantial (and no doubt long term) hive which was absolutely dripping with beautiful golden honey--unfortunately he wouldn't let me come out to take a picture of it. The other day I had a possum take refuge under my kitchen sink (got in through the patio doors). I think all this wildlife loves me because I refuse to use chemicals to grow grass or contain insects. it's just buzzing here. maybe i can start a honey manufacturing business! it sure was beautiful.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Jessica | February 22, 2007 at 07:55 AM