The Lawn Thing

FTLComm - Tisdale - Monday, April 29, 2002

The whole concept of urban landscaping seems to revolve around the growing of a well manicured and tended growth of grass. No home seems to be without it and each year we have shown you a few rebels who have taken a stand against the terrany of grass. There was the fellow who flooded his front lawn on Caribou Crescent with ashphalt, then the one on the East side of town who has a neat concrete front yard painted green and last summer we had pictures of a lady who had her lawn dug up and replaced with stones. Lawns are a difficult project costing not only in time and effort but in equipment and supplies. The biggest cost to the environment is the need for water. A good lawn needs water, lots of it to use up the fertilizer that has been put on it and in dry weather like these last few years water just isn't available for this process. Many people have just decided to maintain the dried up brown stuff as best we can hoping for rain. Above, we see a very positive thinking individual who has been at work and planted a new lawn for this year. With temperatures hanging right in there around zero it will be a while before this one germinates but sooner or later this home owner is going to have to get out the lawn mower. Cut the grass, gather up the clipping and so on. Most home owners do not save the grass clippings but bag them up and ship them to the landfill which seems like a serious waste. The home below, next door to the new lawn already has some green showing, this must be the sunny side of the street. Most of the rest of the town is just variations on brown.