Lawn Begone: Grow Native Plants To Save Water and Create Habitat By: Billy Goodnick, Santa Barbara Landscape Architect
Los Angeles’ water district just announced the strictest water restrictions ever imposed in the state. It is very likely that Santa Barbara will face similar conservation rules. What’s a good way to start conserving? Santa Barbara’s former city landscape architect suggests you replace your lawn with native plants.
Ask Yourself This: Do I Even Need a Lawn?
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hroughout California’s cities and suburbs, people are ignoring the siren song of the “perfect” lawn. Instead, they’re growing food, creating cozy courtyards, and planting rain gardens to capture and harvest precious rainfall. Some even replace swing sets and some plant wondrous backyard “biology labs” filled with native plants where their kids can zoom in on nature’s workings. Southern California is a region where lawns have no business existing if you’re concerned with protecting one of our most precious resources — water. In nondrought years, SoCal receives between 15 to 20 inches (381 to 508 millimeters) of rain annually, most of it falling in winter. Yet, in every neighborhood we find those monotonous patches of green, sucking up life-giving liquid. If 26
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that liquid isn’t falling from the sky, it’s coming from somewhere else where it could serve a higher purpose — like help save the planet.
Five Ways Liquidating Your Lawn Helps Protect the Planet Did you know that the natural limitations of water in our region mean that our native plants are much better adapted to use and store rainfall than nonnative lawn grasses? Turf is the largest irrigated crop in the U.S., taking up more space than we devote to growing corn, wheat, and fruit trees combined. When maintained in the traditional way it comes with a lot of other baggage that affects the environment and the health of your family and community. 1. Most of the popular, nonnative cool-season grasses such as fescues (Festuca spp.), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) need about 1.5 inches (38.1 millimeters) of water per week during the growing season to thrive, which puts a huge strain on our water supplies, to the tune of 9 billion gallons per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That water could instead nurture native plants which support biodiversity for wildlife and make up a healthy, diverse ecosystem. 2. Air pollution from gas-powered mowers, hedge trimmers, and leaf blowers accounts for at least 5% of the emissions in the U.S., contributing to climate change. 3. Overuse of synthetic fertilizers can percolate into the water table and run off into creeks, wetlands, and beaches. Sixty-five percent of U.S. estuaries and coastal waters are eutrophic, meaning they are over enriched in nutrients, which in turn encourages excessive plant growth. This can lead to problems such as algae blooms that starve the water of oxygen and later emit carbon dioxide as they decompose. 4. In our warming world, native trees will be heroes in the fight to mitigate climate change and more. All trees produce oxygen, sequester carbon, and temper climate by lowering air temperatures and increasing humidity. But native trees do all this while providing crucial habitat that supports the foundation of life in your yard. (In your face, lawns!) 5. Since many folks depend on gas-powered mowers, there’s the unceasing din of mowers, blowers, and other power tools that rattle our nerves. Wouldn’t you rather hear birds, frogs, and rustling trees?
