Landscaping: Time for Change


If you read or Industry News section in this issue you are aware that our water situation is getting dire and could get to a disastrous state over the next few decades if we don't take action. In conventional landscapes, decisions are often made on aesthetics alone: You want to re-create a picture of a lovely garden, or are all mesmerized by the idea that a lawn has to look like a closely cropped green carpet.


The Landscape for Life website (www.landscapeforlife.org) provides comprehensive information on creating a sustainable landscape. It aptly describes our current practices: “You may not know that you don't have the soil or climate required by the plants. So you work against nature, altering the soil to suit the plants, fertilizing, and watering constantly so they will survive. And they still don't thrive, because they're not adapted to the conditions in your garden.”


Photo, courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Unitersity of Texas at Austin.


buffalograss (Buchloë dactyloides), and red fescue (Festuca rubra). The typical lawngrasses—from Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) to bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon)—are not native. If you subscribe to the theory that true beauty means low maintenance, you'll also appreciate that most native species are naturally low growing (5 to 6 inches), which means they can be left unmowed if desired. Others grow somewhat taller and send up attractive seed-bearing stems. For homeowners who prefer a smoother appearance, both the short and tall types only require cutting once or twice during the growing season.


Data on the site, cited from the Lawn Institute, says there are an estimated 46.5 million acres of turfgrass in the United States— an area greater than the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island combined. The vast majority of home lawns consist of thirsty turfgrasses that originated in parts of Eurasia that get a lot more rainfall than much of the United States. As a nation we’re spending $6.4 billion a year to coddle these out-of-place plants. Of the 14 species that the Lawn Institute claims are suitable for turf in the U.S., only two are native—


Texas A&M Experiment Station in Dallas. A native to the Great Plains, Buffalograss grows well wherever condition aren't too moist, sandy or shady; it grows slow, requires less water and can handle temperature extremes. Zoysia is another grass that some are using for low water requirements and wear tolerance; It is lush, dark green and forms a dense cover. If grown properly, it creates a lawn so dense that it makes it almost impossible for weeds to invade. It will thrive in the summer heat, but not be bothered by freezing temperatures. Hundreds of locally adapted sedges (grasslike plants) also can be used in place of a lawn.


The first buffalograss cultivars bred specifically for lawn use were developed in the early 1990s by the Recommended Reading on this subject:


Easy Lawns, a book by Stevie Daniels, includes five chapters that focus on specific grass or sedge varieties suitable for use across a wide geographic range. Another six chapters are written by either nursery owners or horticulturists from specific regions; they focus on the native grasses that are best suited to their areas and how to grow them. Still another chapter provides simple, step-by-step instructions on how to get your native grass lawn started. At the end of the book, you'll find profiles of the best native lawn grasses for every region, as well as a comprehensive list of seed suppliers.


In her comprehensive history of this uniquely American obsession, Virginia Scott Jenkins traces the origin of the front lawn aesthetic, the development of the lawn-care industry, its environmental impact, and modern as well as historic alternatives to lawn mania in The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession.


Both of these books are available for purchase from the Building SAVVY Bookstore on BuildingSavvy.com. Find the bookstore tab just under the website header at the top.


IXII GREATER DFW METROPLEX BUILDING SAVVY MAGAZINE 15


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