Rethink Your Lawn

	A chemical-free lawn is safer for children and pets.

Lawns are everywhere in the American landscape. And while they can be useful for recreation or places where family members and employees can relax, they also have many disadvantages:

• they require frequent watering to stay green in during our long dry season
• lawn chemicals contribute to the pollution of our neighborhood creeks and rivers
• power tools used to maintain lawns contribute to local air and water pollution
• grass clippings from lawns fill our landfills and transporting them further contributes to air pollution

You can make your landscape more River-Friendly by:

• limiting turf to those areas where it has a practical function, such as for play or recreation
• accepting clover and other low growing plants in your lawn, thereby avoiding the use of herbicides to maintain a grass monoculture
• selecting suitable turf varieties (see UC IPM Turfgrass)
• keeping sprinkler system well-maintained
• grasscycling
• limiting the use of chemicals (see Our Water Our World, UC Guide to Healthy Lawns, and Pesticide Free Lawns Coalition)
• using electric or hand-powered tools instead of gas-powered tools

Removing unneeded lawn and replacing it with California Native or Mediterranean plantings will:

• reduce water consumption
• reduce yard waste
• reduce the use of herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers
• reduce air pollution caused by power equipment
• increase wildlife habitat

Grass alternatives, such as this California Field Sedge, use less water than standard lawn grasses.

Here are some links to get you started…

• Lose Your Lawn the Bay-Friendly Way
• Lose The Lawn (hosted by Middlebrook Gardens, San Jose)
• How to reduce the size of your lawn
• Xeriscape - Eartheasy.com Solutions for Sustainable Living
• LessLawn information about landscape design for nature lovers...
• Lawn Alternatives Using California Natives (Yerba Buena Nursery)
• Alternatives to Lawns - California Native Plant Society

Grass alternatives:

• California Native Grasslands Association
• Sonoma County Master Gardeners - Ornamental Grasses as Lawn Alternatives
• Lawn_Alternatives

Get ideas for your landscape by checking out the garden photos at http://bringingbackthenatives.net/preview-the-2010-gardens.