Grass is the most irrigated crop in the United States.
If your grass can't grow without a hose, you should not have a lawn there.
The line between Scottsdale, AZ and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) is a stark contrast between worlds; a reminder of what came before as well as the high burden of community water use in desert communities.
I really think states should subsidize a push for native grass lawns.
In the west, native grasses don't make lawns. They make prairie, which is different.
So that specific distinction on what someone can grow via native grass seed or seed mixes such as habiturf vs putting down a square of Bermuda servers what purpose? Is it just to “well actually “ prairie vs lawn or are you going to provide a meaningful contribution.
How to say "I have no idea of the scientific distinction between prairie and grassland" without using those words.
Why would you say this? It's not helpful at all.
A lawn is a tight carpet of green, very cushiony & it can be mowed short & support heavy foot traffic. A prairie is taller, very mixed, very seasonal, you can't mow it much, you can see a little dirt between plants, it's more delicate when it comes to traffic.
I should have said all that at first.
Lawns are horrible on multiple levels. Not only are they a maintenance headache but they're environmentally destructive. Two words: crushed stone!
or even better native cover crops like clover which provide soil and water retention benefits as well as animal habitats
White clover isn’t a US native. There are a few US native clovers but they’re general rare. In my state the one native is endangered
Oh I went on a _tangent_ because I thought "we got native clover over _here_!" & we do, some real pretty ones, but they don't lawn up like the introduced kinds. I think lawns should be reserved for where they happen naturally, except for neighborhood parks & playing fields. No lawns at houses.
Yeah, plants that can do the turf lawn thing are rare and even white clover wants less mowing and a taller cut height than what turf grasses endure.
Clover is taking over my lawn naturally and I couldn't be more delighted. It's not really a lawn, it's weeds I cut down to lawn height. But I'm not the owner I'm a tenant so I'm not spending lots of money to fix a lawn that's not technically mine.
That's a good choice for the situation.
ah fair enough, ty!
Crushed stone is only better on the water use front. People can do better than that, providing vegetation that bugs & birds like.
If water is a scarcity, humans shouldn't build cities there.
I have no idea why cities like Phoenix even exist let alone continue to grow.
And grow in the face of clear data of a warming planet!
Western cities are pretty great at maximizing water conservation. The biggest issue facing the west water wise is not people, it's agriculture. Growing stuff that is not supposed to grow in that climate. And a lot of it for livestock
I guess in my view, ag and livestock are just downstream of humans.
In the case of, say, Phoenix, we're great water managers because we made our own problem by settling in the desert.
Agricultural water use is due to America relying on massive corporate farms rather than smaller local outfits.
This is the modern era; production doesn't stay in the area that it happens, and consumption is not local. Lettuce grown in Arizona is sold in New York. Pistachios grown in California are sold in China. Etc. Things move around.
Exactly the thing we're talking about that is simply not sustainable!
I'd go a step further and say if your grass can't grow without native rainfall it probably shouldn't be there either
Native grasses in dry summer climates (ie the whole west coast) set seed and go dormant if there's no rain for a couple of weeks and stay dormant until it rains like hell for a couple of weeks; if it freezes without raining it stays dormant until the next spring.
That's fair. Also a case for having lots of other native plants, wildflowers, or clover in your yard instead of *just* grass.
Toyally agree. I have a lawn service. They left a sign to water within 2-3 days of application. Wife wonders why I haven't done that. I told her I just don't water; it's on its own and up to nature. It's doing pretty well.
I mean, most places shouldn't have a lawn, period. It's a crop without any practical use that creates a huge resource drain just to make suburbia look tidy.
You only counting grass grown as a crop for that, or decorative grass? They should really be considered separately.
One gets used as feed, at least.
Are you being deliberately disingenuous for kicks, or what?
I don't think I was. This was a few days ago though.
Leave my hoes out of this.
one of the things I love about temperate wet seattle is that most people let the lawns go brown when the rains stop in august
Why would you want an outdoor lawn in a desert?
Just let the riding mower go!
You mean hay?
No, grass. As in, the stuff lawns are made of, you absolute nub.
I don't really see much of any grass in that picture. There's a lot of greenery, but it mostly appears to be shrubs and trees when you zoom in.
As someone who lived in Tempe and made regular visits to Scottsdale, I can tell you from firsthand experience that there’s plenty of grass there. Stupid amounts of grass, even.
And not JUST on their stupid golf courses, either.
My lease requires I maintain the grass lawn in the high desert and it's so! ridiculous! There's so many cool xeriscaped landscapes in my town and I can't wait to be so much smarter about water use in the future
Kids and dogs do, to a degree, justify lawns, yet when I look at my neighborhood there are a lot of lawns that only get walked on by lawn maintenance people.
And I live in the South West where lawns NEED regular watering. That’s drinking water going to grow grass bc history.
If the grass in your lawn won't grow, let the flowers grow instead...I guess. 🤷🏻🪻
I wish you a nice Saturday evening. 🙂
I should correct that. In most places you can have a regular grass lawn without being wasteful. No one in a desert like Arizona should have lawns (or non-desert golf courses).
‘there is not a blade of grass in the heavens that does not have an angel whispering to it grow, grow’ (this is like the only quote I know from the midrash)
barring any environmental devastation: pot should grow everywhere and grass lawns should be abolished
oh shit it’s tuesday lmao
my bad y’all, busy day at work. gimme your best (worst) 💕
The transgenic bluegrass project was going to be a subscription service for corporate lawns lol but it turns out when you make grass grow really slow (good) you also make the grass grow really slow (bad)
church of seiros is evil and tyrannical because they grow grass on the monastery lawns. this is the only reason
And lawnmowers.
Grass lawns are not environmentally friendly anyway.
Water chestnuts also grow in the ground.
The plant they grow on is a sedge which looks like... Angry grass
grass lawns aren't the only type of lawn, though. Moss lawns also exist, for example.
Why you should let your grass grow. What actually happens within your lawn when you don’t mow it. WashingtonPost (paywall)
https://www.allforgardening.com/851644/why-you-should-let-your-grass-grow-what-actually-happens-within-your-lawn-when-you-dont-mow-it-washingtonpost-paywall/
Why you should …
Why you should let your grass grow. What actually happens within your lawn when you don't mow it. WashingtonPost (paywall)by Lighting
www.allforgardening.comif you don’t hate the united states you should grow up a little
Never mind the grass,
making grass grow when you don’t live somewhere is impossible
New grass wants water twice a day,
even on rainy days!
I definitely prefer the grass on the right. To deliberately get a lyric wrong, "Let it grow! Let it grow!"
Your situation are not your actions.
Your situation is your environment and what is available to you.
You have enough time to be on social media for hours…you have time for a native lawn lol.
Imagine 🤪 grass lawns take more time and money (set up and maintenance) than alternatives…
And that’s a fact
It sucks , Swampy! I am going to grow a lavender plant...not sure if lemon grass will grow- but that, too
Even if you are a tree-hugging hippie you don’t need to feel guilty about mowing your lawn. It doesn’t really hurt the grass. Unlike most plants grass evolved to grow from the base rather than the tips in response to herbivores grazing on them so it’s more like a haircut for them.
Today's lecture on political ecology veered into lawn care and how the quest to maintain that forced monoculture is quite expensive--and not just monetarily. Grass is still the most irrigated 'crop' in the United States.
… and grass will grow over your cities.
Been watching _Anselm_.
No, no, no. A plant. A decorative grass. To go in the planeters. We couldn't grow regular grass there if we tried. And we don't want to try because of ticks.
Top tip
If you let your grass weeds grow tall they are easier to pull out
Lemon grass & lavender. Pretty sure lavender will grow by patio...but lemon grass I have no idea....
Let it grow. I'm hated but I wait till July. Mow it once. Then the summer turns it brown. No wasted water or lawn products.
We shouldn't really have grass.
Could we just continue on with that and get rid of the archaic, snobby concept of environmentally terrible lawns?
Lawns of grass are originally a French Aristocratic thing. And they're absolutely awful for the environment.
No Mow May: councils urge Britons to put away lawnmowers - www.theguardian.com/environment/... "Forty local authorities will leave some grass verges and parks uncut as part of annual wildlife-friendly event" nice initiative - let's do it everywhere
Forty local authorities will leave some grass verges and parks uncut as part of annual wildlife-friendly event
www.theguardian.com
