Most of the Western states are encouraging xeriscaping. In some cases, they
are doing so by upping the price of water to astronomical levels........For
western Washington and Oregon, which experience droughts most summers as
part of the natural climate, government agencies have been encouraging
people to allow their grass to go dormant in the summer, since grass is the
biggest water hog. In that climate, grass will survive just fine, and will
come back green and strong in the fall with the return of the rains. In
eastern Washington, where I live, that would be an iffier proposition,
although in many cases the grass would survive ok, as long as not too
trampled. Here, government agencies are encouraging people to replace their
lawns with native trees and grasses as much as possible. But water has been
cheap and easily available so long, it will take a drastic price increase to
get the majority of people to abandon their lawns and lush (Eastern style)
flower beds. I've been gradually abandoning my lawn by planting more drought
tolerant trees and shrubs and leaving lawn in semi-shaded areas where it can
survive on less water. I understand that the city fathers and even the
citizenry in Las Vegas and Phoenix are now frowning upon homeowners who try
to maintain lush green lawns. I think there are many grasses native to
Southern California, but they wouldn't be green year round, and more than
likely would be of the bunch grass variety - so I'm not sure whether people
will go for that look or not. But there are many trees that can survive well
with no additional water in that climate - native oaks and pines, and
eucalyptus and other trees from desert climates around the world. Probably
the easiest thing would be to plant those kind of trees and put soft bark
under them in place of lawn.
Persephone wrote in message ...

Any other city have projects for converting lawns and water-demanding
plantings to xeriscapic (water-saving) type? Santa Monica CA
is encouraging people to convert water-hog lawns to water-saving
native plants.

Of course the So. Calif area is basically a desert, which became a
mega-city only by bringing in water, by hook and sometimes crook
("Chinatown"), so water-saving is urgent here.

Just wondered if any other area was experimenting with this.

Persephone




--

A king can stand people fighting but
he can't last long if people start
thinking.

Will Rogers