Natural Landscaping

[cannibal]

The EPA Natural Landscaping Source Book has some good quotes - I have been saying for ages that lawnmowers and corporate grounds maintenance companies are a horrible waste of resources - every time I see them doing something like sprinklers running in the rain, I cringe. I'd like to see more natural landscaping, and if we must cut lawns, we should

Comments

[johnridley]

Lawn mowing is pretty darn expensive now, when a single person can mow a 72 inch wide swath at 10 MPH, and can work even when the grass is soaking wet. If they were doing 18 inches at a time, going 1.5 to 2 MPH, and had to work in dry grass, they'd have to be making about 40 cents an hour to make it competitive. And they'd be displacing workers who would then become laid-off.

However, I'm with you for the most part. I don't like lawns. I refuse to water a lawn, except sometimes if I have a bare patch, I'll water it for a few weeks to get the seed established. Mostly our "lawn" is mowed weeds. I'm planting a dozen or so trees and other plants a year. Eventually I hope to have our 2 acres switched to either meadow or shaded woods. It'll take a couple of decades, but I'll be here.

[cannibal]

The economics are a big problem, you're right, but you could probably pay more like a couple bucks an hour, if you take into account the cost of buying and maintaining those commercial lawnmowers and not paying for gas. If it weren't for minimum wage, you'd be employing four or five times as many people... I would start a company to do it if I could figure out a way to make it pay.

Watering doesn't make sense to me. Your plan sounds great, my place is already mostly shaded woods... and about ten degrees cooler than the city, in the summer. My biggest landscaping problem is mosquito control and standing water.

[ladyinfidel]

i'm planning on ripping out the little bit of front lawn that i have and putting in ground cover. the back yard i still need for anais but i don't water it, well, ever

[cannibal]

Do check on weed ordinances first, Dearborn is bad about those, although there may be a chance to push for change (see Chapter 3).

[rmeidaking]

Ann Arbor has enacted rules that actually discourage the traditional lawn. All over town, the yards look like what my grandma would have called "Overgrown flower beds" in a disparaging voice. But that's good! Out here in the 'burbs, though, it's more of a challenge, and one has to plot carefully in order to have a vegetable garden among the flowers, and there are rules about what percentage of one's lawn may be unmowed. Hopefully those will change in coming years, since the water authority is already nearing capacity.

[cannibal]

Chapter 3 actually has suggestions on how to work on improving suburban weed ordinances to make them more friendly to natural landscaping, talks about setbacks and good examples, including Madison, WI and Ft Collins, CO.

[susmadel]

Come to Tucson. We just have dirt and cactus. Literally. You rake the dirt in your front yard once a week. The cactus don't even need watering. :)

[cannibal]

Hah! Thanks, my kind of town. I hope you're not missing the snow... ever going to come back here?

[susmadel]

Well probably not because I am going to be moving to Austin when I graduate. My boyfriend is there so.... but maybe you and your wife can come down to warm weather and visit one of these times. I'll let you know next time I am in Michigan for a visit.

[cannibal]

Very cool... I do hate yard work, want to come design my landscaping or give advice? My wife's late aunt was a soil chemist, but we aren't experts. We're trying to pick a spot for a garden right now, we've got lots of trees, at least 20 or 30, and I've got at least one low spot in the woods I'd like to drain for mosquito control.

I was just reading more about xeriscaping in Fla.