Sacha wrote:

I remember one house
had an enormous lawn, in full view of the public passing by and on
which nobody would want to sit, as a result. He told us that this kind
of thing was deeply unpopular with the Cretans who were used to
conserving every drop of water to use on useful food giving plants!

Not limited to Europeans: I remember touring the Rosicrutians'
headquarters in San Jose, California.... several acres of lush lawn with
built in sprinklers that watered every night, since the area only gets
meaningful rain in the spring. More sensible folk used various succulents
for landscaping; a restaurant I dined at several times had a beautiful
hedge of Jade plants.

--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G