The front page of yesterday’s Boston Globe reported lawn watering is to blame for much of the excess demand on already stressed local water supplies. "People need about only an inch of water a week for their lawn,” the article says, “most of that is supplied by rain.”
True to form, my boyfriend Batman patiently listened to my pompous recounting of the wasteful behavior of our neighboring suburbanites. Then, promptly replied with his plans to water our lawn in the middle of an 80 degree day, with a rainy 4-day forecast looming just 48 hours away.
So, I turned to my Twitter network to justify my disgust. Instead, more than a few Gen X men rose to defend their never-ending pursuit of - lush, vibrant hair turf.
Nevertheless, water supplies across the United States are increasingly under pressure as populations and consumption rates grow. The water table has dropped hundreds of feet in many locations. Rivers and streams run dry as water is siphoned off for agriculture, industry and individual residences. All along the Atlantic Seaboard, saltwater is flowing into formerly freshwater aquifers and wells because we are pumping freshwater out faster than nature can put it back. [1]
Now, one of my continuing mantras for Gen Y communication professionals is the importance of passion for something outside your profession. Technology, fashion, politics, space travel - you have to have something that excites you beyond the tools and techniques of your trade. For me, that something has always been science - biology, genetics and the environment.
If you work in any communication field, you already know today’s marketplace demands authentic messaging supported by substantive commitment and activity. It’s also imperative to understand the science and metrics behind strategy and objectives. Therefore, I’m sharing a little secret with all my trusted Gen X colleagues plagued by the tradition to keep up superficial appearances - grass turns brown and dormant during hot, dry summer months to reduce its demand for water, not because it thirsts for more.
Brown grass is not dying. On the contrary, grass recovers quite well from droughts. The popular belief that this "dead" appearance is unacceptable is the result of a very effective publicity campaign by The American Garden Club. The campaign’s contests and intense publicity convinced home owners it was their civic duty to maintain a beautiful and healthy lawn. Lawns soon becoming the accepted form of landscaping. The garden club further stipulated the appropriate type of lawn was "a plot with a single type of grass with no intruding weeds, kept mown at a height of an inch and a half, uniformly green, and neatly edged." Thus, America (gullibly) entered the age of lawn care. [2]
Turf grass, like the kind we use in our lawns, are typically monocultures, consisting of a single species often not native to the area where they are planted. Unfortunately, many of the places where turf grass is grown are too hot to prevent it from going dormant in the summer without the application of considerable amounts of water. [3]
This was not a problem in temperate England where the concept of lawns originated. Natural rainfall was sufficient to maintain a lawn's health. Yet, exporting of the lawn ideal to more arid regions of the world crippled water resources, requiring larger, more environmentally invasive water supply systems. [4]
Everyone wants a beautiful lawn, but many mistakenly believe beautiful lawns are only possible through extensive watering, fertilization and pesticide application. Your real civic duty is to teach the next generation how to be responsible stewards of the scarce resources they will inherit from you.
Resources on water-efficient landscaping:
- United States Environmental Protection Agency: Your Grass Can Be Greener
- University of Missouri: Water-Efficient Gardening and Landscaping
- Utah State University: Water Conservation in Urban and Suburban Areas
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