January 27th, 2012 | 
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In the resort area of Sun Valley, Idaho- like in so many American towns- the standard of backyard beauty is “golf-course aesthetic”. In an area where typical rainfall is just 15 inches per year, that’s not sustainable: that is, there’s just not enough water for all that lawn, plus the fish, etc. Original story here: faircompanies.com
We have a suburban lawn. I’ve noticed my children don’t need a lawn to play– they rarely walk or run on the lawn. They would be just as happy to run on a path or look for interesting bugs in a natural native landscape. We haven’t switched because people have complained about other neighbors doing a native landscape. We need to get over it and, as he says, “we need to change what we see as beautiful”.
Great video! Thanks!
Thank you for the great video and keep up the awesome work!
Studies on soil carbon sequestering are showing that grass and lawns including bluegrass are huge contributors to the development and sustainability of a healthy ‘Soil Food Web’. Nothing sequesters carbon better than grass, and it’s that process that’s needed to chemically construct Humus in the soil. Humus is the laymen’s term for Humic substances, ther term of science. It’s that substance that defines a healthy and productive soil.
Any lawn, including bluegrass is far from being the equal of a parking lot, and fertilizer use or heavy water use is not needed to keep the bluegrass lawn lush and healthy. At our research Arboretum in the high desert of New Mexico where we get 7 – 8 inches of annual precipitation, we only water our bluegrass/fescue lawn once every three weeks in the summer and we never use chemical fertilizer. Native plants are wonderful and our nursery is one of the largest growers in the west.
grass, and suburbs are one of the worst things ever invented by man =(