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From: nemo@rochester.UUCP (Wolfe)
Newsgroups: net.garden,net.consumers
Subject: Re: Grass
Message-ID: <60@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Jul-85 09:28:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.60
Posted: Wed Jul 17 09:28:11 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 20:29:16 EDT
References: <11461@brl-tgr.ARPA> <10559@rochester.UUCP> <1296@peora.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
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Xref: watmath net.garden:625 net.consumers:2653

>> I must agree that I consider it extremely stupid that most folks try to
>> maintain a grass lawn in Florida.  And the most common alternative I've
>> seen there is a *pebble* "lawn".  Yuch!  Talk about hot!  I personally plan
>> to make jungle....
> 
> Well, you have to consider that the ground here is made entirely of sand,
> except for some organic matter from dead plants in some places (or a lot of
> organic matter in the swamps); and that if you don't plant something here,
> depending on whether your plot of ground is in a swamp or on dry (or dried)
> land, you will either get a lot of "natural" grass mixed with ordinary
> weeds, or a mess of palmettos (both of which are very common in currently
> idle plots of land around where I live).
> 
> Actually there is a kind of grass, "St Augustine" grass (my house-owning
> officemate tells me that is its name), which grows VERY well here; while I
> live in an apartment, I have observed that the groundskeepers of our
> apartment complex have to do very little work to keep this grass growing
> well.  It is not particularly soft grass, compared to what we used to have
> in Georgia when I was growing up (although it is much softer than zoysia
> (or however you spell that)), but it is very thick and durable.

Yeah.  The stuff is considered a weed elsewhere, but it is perfect for Fl.
Still, you have to water it if you want it to be green all year.  Considering
the fact that the phosphate industry is sucking water out of the aquifer so
fast that in some places the aquifer water level was 100 feet *below* sea
level (as of 5 years ago, maybe worse now.  BTW, the phosphate is being mined
for agricultural use - see the second digit on the chemical fertilizer bag
if you wander where it all goes), and the increasing pressure of 
the exploding population for water has placed on the ecology there, why is
it necessary for everyone to have grass lawns?

> If you make a jungle, as you suggested, you will have some amazing forms
> of wildlife in there... alligators, poisonous snakes, "palmetto bugs" 3 or
> 4 inches long, spiny caterpillars... and of course, these infernal fire
> ants (which also appear on lawns, however, and which are the worst insects
> I have ever encountered anywhere).

When I was growing up (in Fl) we had a jungle in the back yard.  Not too many
poisonous snakes, no alligators, megaroaches, many birds (including a
pileated woodpecker), racoons, 'possums.  We had short, spiny caterpillars 
that had a sting that not only hurt like fire (I mean drop everything and 
sprint to the nearest medicine chest yelling like you wanted a third encore by
the Grateful Dead) but also made body parts distant from the sting crawl like
your skin might when fingernails are scraped on a blackboard, only it doesn't
stop.  These were confined to the more conventional front yard.  Fire ants
seem to actually *prefer* grasslands.  My point is that in Florida (and most
places, in fact) the ground water is becoming a scarce resource (wanna see a 
sinkhole?  just suck the water out of the limestone caves under your house).
The main problems for maintaining comfortable human life there are providing
relief from sun and heat.  There is ample rainwater over the course of a
year, but the sandy soil drains quickly and the intense sunlight evaporates
surface water rapidly as well.  The solution is to have many shade trees and
some of the wide variety of bushes and other undergrowth that thrives in the
partial shade (shade in Florida is more intense than unobscured light most 
days around here)  It does not have to look ugly, it does not have to totally
exclude grass, it does not have to be impenitrable, and while it will be host
to a variety of insect life, that's just a fact of life in Fl.  Besides, it
will attract other interesting forms of life (see birds above).  The
advantages are that it stays cooler (visit Jungle Gardens or Sunken Gardens 
on a really hot day for an education in the airconditioning value of a few 
trees); the ground does not dry out nearly as fast; it can be much more 
private (I don't generally make love on the grass in the yard, but with a
reasonable growth of trees, vines, bushes, etc. with a few small, open 
places ....); it reduces noise from roads and neighbors; it looks great
without having to suck on the aquifer every day (once a week usually did it,
if there was no rain); it is less work to maintain than a lawn (hack it back
a little once or twice a year); it can smell much nicer than most lawns I've
ever met; .....  The only problem is it takes years to get the growth to a
good state if you have to start from scratch (like where the #&*$%@!! 
buldozers have leveled everything and developers put up crackerbox houses).
Nemo
PS: How about that other famous Fl. grass, the sandspur?
-- 
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