"Go Dry" Movement Spreads, As Californians Rip Up Their Grass Lawns

no mow landscape photo
"Jacobs says this landscaping requires no mowing, no edging and no weekly maintenance, just a little weeding and trimming about once per month." Image credit:KPBS, Angela Carone

Cut the grass will you?...Are you done edging?....Time to water the grass...Grass is too long!...Feed the grass...Grass is too high. Suburban US teens of an earlier generation will remember hearing these very expressions, having grown up with acres of the Kentucky blue. Now it's pretty much the landscaping service that gets an earfull.

Things are changing, though, in places where water is increasingly scarce and costly. Californians, in fact, have good incentives to rip it up. Los Angeles Times reports on this with their story: The Dry Garden: L.A. offers rebate for ripping out your lawn.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is giving its customers more motivation to let go of their lawns. Single-family homes can get a rebate of up to $2,000, assuming you meet criteria for the Residential Drought Resistant Landscape Incentive Program.

San Diego, too, is "going dry" according to this story by station KPBS: Yanking Out Lawns Saves Water and Money

The San Diego County Water Authority says nearly 60 percent of our drinking water is used for lawns and other landscaping. Mandatory outdoor water restrictions means some lawns will go brown this summer. But, as KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce tells us, some people are pulling up their grass.

Will it be the end of the landscaping business as we know it? I hope so. The air quality improvement and reduced mower noise alone would make it worth while.

More posts on grass alternatives.
18 Beautiful Edible Landscaping Plants
Xeriscape, the Art of Water Conserving Landscaping
Succulent Landscaping Plants Gain Popularity For Drought Tolerance ...
The Greener Gardening Idea: Drip Irrigation or Xeriscaping ...