dry lands and lost love of place.

[inyo]

In the late 1800s a lot of people lived in Vermont. It wasn't a good place to have lots of people and farms so most of them left. The forests they had cut down regrew.

Some of these people, or their descendants, ended up in California. They talked about how much they loved the weather but I think they really missed the East. Why? Well, they

Comments

[ihatepavel]

Intriguing--I never thought about how really what we're doing when we do "traditional Americana" landscaping is trying to recreate the East Coast. Is that really true? Interesting if it is.

We don't really have an East Coasty landscape. We've got rocks and grasses in the front, a garden on the side and yes, grass in the back, but only for our dog to enjoy. Actually it's a pretty crappy lawn. We were just discussing today how if it weren't for dogs and presumably eventually children in a couple years, we wouldn't have a lawn at all.

[inyo]

Well, people do things for different reasons - and I don't think it is intentional - but when people think of a 'pretty' landscape, they think of England, or Vermont. People do love the rugged west but they don't landscape or plant in a way appropriate for that setting. I don't think having a little lawn for a dog to play in is necessarily bad (especially in your area which is wetter than much of the West) but all in all there is a ridiculous amount of 'lawn' out west that doesn't belong... most of it never even gets sat in. Out in Pittsburgh and Vermont you don't even have to water your lawn as long as you don't mind it browning a little in midsummer.

Incidentally Portland has done some really neat stuff with runoff management.