gardens and landscaping | Gardening

Lafayette homeowner Michael Johnson has 2,500 square feet of thirsty fescue growing in his front yard. Although he’s already converted most of his property to drought-tolerant plantings, he’s decided to kill the rest of his lawn within a few weeks. With California facing its worst drought and water agencies throughout the state asking residents to cut back home water use, “it’s the right thing to do,” says Johnson, an avid fly fisherman who’s attuned to water issues.

Despite recent storms, this is the third straight year of below-normal rainfall. California is a state where dry is the historical norm. With more and more competing demands for a limited water supply and tighter restrictions likely, maintaining a water-guzzling lawn is looking like the equivalent of driving a Hummer.

“We’ve always said that lawns don’t make sense in certain parts of the West,” says Kathleen Brenzel, garden editor of Sunset magazine. “Lately cities are falling into line with that – legislating about what percentage of new landscapes can be lawns, things like that. It’s hard to deny that lawn grass uses more water than almost any other plant.”

Keeping turfgrass green takes a lot of water. In their recent book, “Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs,” Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O’Brien estimate that California’s 300,000 acres of lawn soak up 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year. That’s equivalent to the annual flow of the Owens and Kern rivers.

The statewide figure covers a lot of variation; Charles Bohlig, East Bay Municipal Utility District water conservation supervisor, notes that although its customers use an average of 40 percent of their household water on lawns and gardens, house lots are larger and lawn irrigation use higher on the dry side of the East Bay hills.

Heavy polluter

Consider, too, all the fertilizer and pesticides lavished on turf. Both mingle with the runoff to pollute streams and the bay when, as happens a lot, lawns get overwatered. Lawn fertilizers give off nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And there’s air pollution from gas-powered maintenance.

John Greenlee, Brisbane landscape designer and author of “The American Meadow Garden” and an advocate of low-water landscaping, has been through big droughts in the ’70s and ’80s and believes this drought has brought California to a tipping point.

“The crazy thing is, anybody who’s been following what’s going on knew this was coming … even without climate change. It’s crazy to ask the city of San Francisco to conserve water when you look at lawns in Alamo and Walnut Creek. Maybe the long party is over. The lawn will be one of the first things to go, and it deserves to.”

Yet the traditional lawn has proved harder to kill than Rasputin. What accounts for its tenacious cultural hold? “There’s almost a visceral reaction to grass, the way it’s soft and springy underfoot,” says Brenzel. Traditional turfgrass also serves a social function, says Merritt College landscape horticulture department head Chris Grampp.

“It’s the only plant that supports active human use. You can’t have a picnic on manzanita. And lawns are suitable for mechanical care – horticulturally simple.” Even arch-critic Greenlee won’t deny the aesthetics: “From a design perspective, I get what a lawn does. It’s a place for the eye to rest, a simple green panel. And for sports turf, there’s no way I’d argue for having an alternative lawn.”

Residential turfgrass, however, has shallow cultural roots in California. “Spanish mission gardens emphasized drought-hardy plants like olives,” Brenzel explains. The first waves of post-Gold Rush Anglo settlers planted trees, not turf. “But people who came from the East fondly remembered the green lawns back home.”

East Coast transplant

The East, where summer rains make lawns viable, was where influential 19th century landscape architects such as Frank Jessup Scott made the lawn a marker of prosperity and respectability and a key element of civic beautification. Eventually, as California suburbia burgeoned after World War II and power mowers and automatic sprinklers made maintenance easier, lawns became the norm even here – the only Mediterranean-climate region where they’ve caught on.

But in recent years, there’s been a shift in attitudes toward lawns, says Kathy Kramer, founder and organizer of the East Bay’s Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour (see box), which for the past 10 years has spotlighted homes with mostly native, drought-tolerant plantings.

“Native plant gardens use half the water that a lawn does. They’re also beautiful, and they provide habitat for wildlife. People who are interested in saving money on their water bill, eliminating pesticide use, and enjoying nature right outside their home are moving toward this newer and, I think, more interesting, type of garden.” Other options people are trying: ornamental plants from other Mediterranean climate zones, succulents, even “edible lawns” of heritage grains.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which has asked its customers to cut home water use by 10 percent, recently green-lighted homeowner Michael Johnson’s project as part of its conversion rebate program (see box). At a “Mow No Mo” workshop hosted by Johnson in March, participants will smother his turf under layers of pomace compost – the residue from grape pressing – cardboard and wood-chip mulch. In the fall, a mix of drought-tolerant plants, including native manzanitas, Mediterranean lavender and rosemary, will go in.

Although Greenlee relies on the herbicide Roundup to kill turf, Johnson, with a creek by his yard, won’t be using it: “We like our wildlife.”

He’s been whittling away at his greensward for years: “We’ve been considering removing the last of it for a while, but the drought sealed the deal.”

Bay Area cities offering rebates

A growing number of Northern California cities and water districts offer landscape conversion incentive programs. Residents who replace conventional sod lawns with less thirsty plantings can earn rebates. The East Bay Municipal Utility District offers rebates of up to $2,500 for residential lawn conversion and irrigation upgrades. Some trees, shrubs, ornamental annuals, no-mow sod and artificial turf are not allowed as lawn alternatives; native and other drought-tolerant plants are encouraged. Before-and-after inspection by EBMUD staffers is required.

For more information on the EBMUD Lawn Conversion Irrigation Upgrade Rebate Program: http://bit.ly/1bQixCH.

Others rewarding lawn replacement include:

North Marin Water District (http://bit.ly/1fkysxy)

Santa Clara Valley Water District (http://bit.ly/1eYJjc7)

Napa (http://bit.ly/1eYOsRp)

Sonoma (http://bit.ly/1fkB0Mc)

Menlo Park (http://bit.ly/NeSpeJ)

San Francisco, where lawns are less common, doesn’t have a comparable program, although the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission promotes laundry-to-landscape gray-water use.

Garden tour

Bringing Back the Natives, a free, self-guided tour of 40 water-wise Alameda and Contra Costa county gardens, takes place May 4. A native plant sale featuring several nurseries specializing in California natives takes place May 3 and 4. A series of workshops will be offered in conjunction with the event. To register, go to www.bringingbackthenatives.net.

Resources

“Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs” by Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O’Brien. Cachuma Press, 2011, $23.83.

“The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn” by John Greenlee. Timber Press, 2009, $34.95.

Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan are Berkeley naturalists and freelance writers. E-mail: home@sfchronicle.com

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