I wasn’t saying we should transport our water to Bangladesh etc … just some numbers to put our wastage into perspective.

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Oh, also that the resources we’re depleting so thoughtlessly could be better applied elsewhere. (Even people living in arguably the most powerful nation face water problems. See SFGate article here.)

I’m completely in favor of de-lawning; I really enjoy walking around the Las Cruces, NM, where the vast majority of lawns are native cacti over lava rock.

However, I’m not completely on board with your line of argumentation. Over-irrigation of lawns in the US is completely irrelevant to issues of thirst, drought, and water quality in the rest of the world. The only way to solve water problems in East Africa, South Asia, etc., is to invest in local pumps/dams/treatment facilities very close to the affected people. The problems are *not* solved by having Americans conserve water—we can’t bottle it and export it. We can’t build canals or pipelines.

To a large extent, conservation is a watershed-by-watershed issue. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and so on are straining their local supplies, and further east the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted, etc., so lawn reduction is a vitally important issue in these and other regions. It’s always better for the environment (and the ratepayer) to build a *smaller* reservior, a *smaller* treatment plant, etc., so lowering water demand is a useful thing to do even in the soggy Northeast.

So, yeah, I’m happy to see the delawning movement gathering momentum, I don’t like the “There’s not enough clean water in Bangladesh, so let’s conserve in Peoria” argument. It’s a non sequitur.

Outside of the dry regions, where I’m appalled by the number of golf courses, I’m much more concerned about the lawnmower fuel and fertilizer runoff. Don’t forget insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides—people really heap that stuff on, and some common chemicals seem to mimic human and animal hormones. The other issue worth highlighting is the survival of bees (and biodiversity generally) which are mentioned in one of your links.

Green blogger “Worsted Witch” offers an excellent summary of the environmental impact of lawns, covering biodiversity, water use, pesticides and more.

I miss lawns, because they don’t grow grass here (except in parks, and it’s a different kind of grass, the kind that grows to over-your-head level before it gets ‘mowed’ by a team of guys armed with weed wackers).

Speaking of water-consciousness, there’s a gardening technique that uses less land and if you water it from the top, less water… I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s like a spiral, with the highest point at the top. If you plant certain herbs at the top and certain herbs at the bottom, with a small amount of water you can effectively water all your plants.

The other day, I was noticing that the garden was attracting things I hadn’t seen in ages: monarch butterflies. Plus bees and all sorts of other happy things, making it an interesting moving buzzing mix of urban eco system surrounded by a dead sea of perfect green chemlawns (and those damn leaf-blowers!!!). I hadn’t noticed the lack of butterflies and bugs before, because often when you don’t see, you don’t miss. We need to diversifiy even urban spaces!

cheers,
marie @ GreenFertility

Oh, and at some point I’ll send you the chutney recipe if you’d like it - easy to make and great if you grow your own tomatoes!

Is your ‘green area’ actually useable by yourselves? If so, what about putting a few veg-beds in? Not as aesthetically pleasing as flowers, but if the beds are taken out of the lawn, if you move out, the land can simply be re-sown with grass seed and no-one will be the wiser!