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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!jerry
From: jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre)
Newsgroups: net.garden,net.consumers
Subject: Re: Grass
Message-ID: <504@oliveb.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 21:30:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: oliveb.504
Posted: Mon Jul 15 21:30:52 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 20:28:01 EDT
References: <11461@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 47
Xref: watmath net.garden:615 net.consumers:2630

> As I walked down the street from the bus stop yesterday, looking at all
> the front lawns on the block, this thought occurred to me:
> 
> Grass is *terrible* stuff, unless you can eat it. It needs mowing,
> watering, de-weeding, etc., or it turns into a real mess. So why on
> earth does every house have a front lawn and a back yard that are full
> of *grass*? Why haven't we long ago realized that grass is the wrong
> stuff to put around our houses, and chosen instead some nice
> low-growing, no-maintenance ground cover that will force out weeds on
> its own and let people enjoy their little plots of land instead of
> having to slave over them to keep them looking "nice", by an arbitrary
> social standard?

I suspect that one reason is that grass is easy to get started.  A great
many things are the way they are because they are easily built that way.
Maintenance is usually not considered (like cars that have to be jacked
up to change the oil filter).  Another reason is cultural, like wearing
ties and jackets in a hot climate.

With the right seed, enough watering, and a couple of mowings, you can
get a decent looking lawn is less than two weeks.  The builder sells it
to you any you get to worry about the weeds that come later.  Sod
doesn't change this as they still have to grow the grass somewhere, and
the quicker it grows, the better.  I would bet that all the alternatives
take longer and more labor to get started.

On the cultural side many of our customs are based on a colder climate
(ties and jackets, wool clothing, etc.).  In these areas grass IS better
than all the alternatives.  Six feet of snow for 5 months will kill any
type of ground cover.  After it all melts you can get grass started
cheaply and quickly.  Northern people don't have to mow their lawns
twice a week.

In southern areas I have seen many kinds of alternate "lawns".  Several
had the entire lawn covered in Boston fern.

In Florida I lived in a house where part of the lawn NEVER needed
mowing.  It always stayed putting green height, never had weeds and was
nice to walk on.  Needless to say I would have loved to spread this out
to the rest of the lawn.  The problem was it didn't spread,  never went
to seed.  I suspect that varity of grass is just to difficult to get
established.

The ideal lawn cover grows fast but grows very slowly.

				Jerry Aguirre @ Olivetti ATC
{hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerry