Re: lawn alternative

Dana,
There are really very few aternatives to lawn that
function in all ways as well as lawn, but there are
alternatives...  For a less thirsty turf grass for
coastal california climates, Saint Augustine
Grass/Stenotaphrum secundatum, as mentioned recently
is much more drought tolerant than the Festuca
elatior/ Tall Fescue Blends which are currently in
vogue.  

My experience with the tall Fescue Blends of turf
being drought tolerant is that they really aren't, but
the competition of tree roots from a Morus alba in my
own small lawn may be the reason.  I find that my Tall
Fescue turf growing in dappled shade will brown out
within 3 weeks without irrigation in summer, while my
neighbor's lawn of St. Augustine turf acroos the
street in full sun looks green all summer with no
irrigation.   In the immediate Bay Area it is
certainly possible to have this type of lawn survive
with little to no irrigation.  In climates with
temperatures in the 80's and 90's in the summer, I
doubt if it would stay as green without water.  It
will brown out in winter with frost, but usually stays
green here in Berkeley.  Kikyuyu Grass is another
introduced tropical grass which has naturalized along
railroad tracks and the coast highway which is similar
in appearance to St. Augustine's, and will survive
readily with no summer irrigation in mild marine
influenced climates.  Only St Augustine Grass is
commercially available as sod.  Zoysia grass is also
quite a bit more tolerant of drought than the Tall
Fescue Blends.

For non subtropical grasses, your best bets will be
things such as Buffalo Grass/Buchloe dactyloides, or
Bouteloua gracilis/Blue Gramma Grass. Both are more
commonly planted in harsher climates such as Nevada,
Texas, Colorado,New Mexico and high elevation Arizona,
and usually started from seed.  They are not much used
in California, but there may be some municipal drought
resistant display gardens around which feature them. 
There are some other species of Fescue which are
coming into play as lawn substitutes, but availability
is limited and long term adaptability is yet to be
proven.  Sunset Magazine had several articles on such
grasses in the past year, if I recall correctly. 
Hybrid Bermuda Grasses are also fairly drought
resistant, but I hestitate to recommend them unless
you are willing to contain them with well constructed
edging/mow bands to control them.  They are much used
for golf courses and such in Southern California
deserts as well as Spain's Costa del Sol, as well as
throughout the middle east/Saudi Arabia.  Definitely
not drought tolerant in desert or high heat
mediterranean climates, marginally so in the San
Francisco Bay Area.

Other non grass species which can be planted as turf
are some of the Carex species.  I have used Carex
tumulicola/Berkely sedge as a turf substitute in my
own garden, and again, in a mild marine influenced
climate for small areas it is a very good turf
substitute, taking sun or shade, medium water or
sporadic,( I water it only once a month), and can be
mown to 3 to 4 inches, and is easily planted from
seed.  There are several other Carex species which are
also good turf substitutes, see John Greenlee's book,
Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses for more
suggestions.

Another non-turf species often used as a turf
substitute is Phyla nodiflora/ Lippia Grass.  Very
drought tolerant once established, takes high summer
heat beautifully, low growing and will take heavy foot
traffic, but also attracts bees while in bloom. 
Arctotheca calendula/African Cape weed is another
fairly drought tolerant species which is low enough
growing, can be mown and resistant to foot traffic
which could serve as a lawn substitute, in mild
maritime influenced climates.  In Berkeley/Oakland, I
have gardens of this as the turf substitute which
survive with only monthly irrigation.  The foliage
color is not green, however, and all those yellow
daisy like flowers may detract from that clean,
negative space/foil to planting look you desire.  This
species can also become a pest in well watered turf
areas, as can be observed in Golden Gate Park in San
Francisco, where some mad gardener has taken it upon
himself to spread it all around the park in lawn
areas, where it becomes as pernicious as dandelions
and will definitely out compete turf with regular
irrigation.  A good freeze with temperatures below 25F
is enough to eliminate this one.

I'd suggest  the Western Sunset Garden book's list of
walk-on lawn substitutes for other choices, but all
require regular irrigation to look their best.  There
is always the Arizona desert look as well, a ground
plane treatment of decomposed granite mulch with
accent plantings of ornamental grasses and perennials.
 Or the unmown meadow look, which is more a
'walk-through' than walk-on planting, and could use
some of the native California Bunch grasses such as
Stipa pulchra, Stipa cernua, Festuca californica,
Deschampsia caespitosa 'Holciformis', and Elymus
tritichoides, mixed with California native wildflowers
such as the flowering Blue eyed Grass/Sisrinchium sp,
Pacific Coast Iris/ Iris douglasiana/Pacific hybrids,
California Poppies/Eschscholzia californica, Sidalcea
malvaeflora/Mallow, Zauschneria californica
'Solidarity Pink' and others. 

Hope these suggestions are helpful...





- Dana Tamura <tamur@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I live in a suburban neighborhood 20 miles north of
> San Francisco,
> California.  My front and back yards consist
> primarily of lawn.  I
> really can't stand the water hungry things, but have
> never seen an
> alternative that can still be walked upon and has a
> similar low-grow
> look.  I've heard of lots of alternatives but have
> never actually seen
> one in place that is used similarly to a lawn, to
> give that sense of
> green negative space to a landscape.  Has anyone had
> experience
> replacing a hungry lawn with an
> alternative--successfully?  Chamomille
> perhaps? I'd love to hear some true-life stories and
> see some pictures,
> or better yet see the real thing.
> 
> Dana Tamura
> 


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