Alternatives to Lawns: A Checklist for Designers and Builders
• Protect existing landscapes. Try to save as much of the natural landscape as possible on an undeveloped tract of land when siting a building and doing sitework. Avoid damage to trees and the vegetation around them (see EBN Vol. 1, No. 1). By keeping what is already growing there, considerable dollar savings can be realized in landscaping. • Talk to your clients about native landscaping options. Because this is a relatively new concept, you can’t expect your clients to quickly understand or be immediately receptive to the idea. To help them get an idea of what native landscaping is all about, you might want to provide clients with one or more of the books listed here. (Providing a useful book or two to clients is an excellent way to build up loyalty that can pay off with future referrals.) • Use regionally appropriate landscaping strategies. There’s a reason that native vegetation in Georgia is very different from vegetation in Arizona or Massachusetts. When planting wooded, prairie, or other non-lawn landscape areas, use locally grown, native plants. These are adapted to your local climate and should need little pampering. • Buy wildflowers from responsible sources. When purchasing wildflowers, check with the seller to make sure that the plants were not collected from the wild. Collection of native wildflowers by nursery wholesalers has devastated wild populations in many parts of the country; this is especially true with cacti in the Southwest. • Landscape for wildlife. Select trees, shrubs, and wildflowers that will provide wildlife food and habitat. Nationwide, we have destroyed countless square miles of wildlife habitat; even small woodlots or prairies that can be created around houses are vital to nesting songbirds and other wildlife. • Consider edible landscaping. Planting fruit trees and berry bushes and planning areas for vegetable gardens will make it easier for homeowners to grow some of their own food. • Choose low-maintenance turf grasses. When you absolutely must provide lawns for clients, consider a low-water, low-maintenance grass such as buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides). This is one of the only turf grasses that is native to the United States. It grows very slowly and can either be left unmowed (maximum height 6-8”), or mowed a few times a year to keep the height at 3-5”. Optimal precipitation for buffalograss is 12-24” per year, but it is viable with 10-35” of rain per year. While buffalograss is native to the prairie states stretching from Canada to Texas, new cultivars are being developed that are suited to other parts of the country, even into the Mid-Atlantic region. Check with your local agricultural extension service or lawn and garden center about the appropriateness of buffalograss—and other low-maintenance grasses—to your region. • Limit lawn area. If conventional bluegrass or fescue lawns are required, try to limit the area landscaped for lawn. A reasonable maximum area for lawns is the area that can be cut with one charge of a battery-powered electric lawnmower (or with a reel mower). Ryobi claims that its new battery-powered lawnmower can cut up to 1⁄2 acre (60-90 minutes operating time), but an area of 10,000 ft2 (about 1⁄4 acre) might be more realistic for the mower’s battery.
