It will be a short update today. We had a quieter day, with Chrissy working and me taking care of the kids. We were all pretty tired, but we were able to spend an hour or so in the INTENSE DESERT that is our front lawn.
The kids each picked a different activity. Jesse decided to create a visual masterpiece with his sidewalk chalk. Here he is, plotting out his artwork.
Janna exercised her hula-hooping skills. She quickly became frustrated, though; apparently hula hooping is hard while sitting down.
Jesse also took some time to explore the latest hat-glasses combination. Below: The classic cool-kid combination of forward-facing hat with sports shades.
The MTV look. Unfortunately, no bling was anywhere to be found.
The next picture is a close-up of the common area in our townhouse complex. Now, it's true that sports are occasionally played here, but not to the extent that our lawn should literally begin disappearing.
Ottawa is now in a level-two drought, a situation that hasn't occurred for more than a decade. According to this news story, many people, including the government agency in charge of parks in the National Capital Area, are reconsidering their practices surrounding the use of grass.
Since grass takes so much water to keep healthy, government officials have decided to let the grass in many parks go "dormant," or turn completely brown. It's not completely dead (although in my picture above, I'd say it's getting there), but it has a similar look and consistency to straw. Many people also seem to be asking the question of whether using grass on lawns is really the way things will go in the future, since grass takes up so much water and has little practical value. Apparently, this debate goes much further than Ottawa; a municipal utility in Denver ran billboards declaring, "Grass is dumb"!
Is this a crazy sign of our times, or what?? I mean, I totally appreciate the water savings that we could achieve by paving over our lawns, but I can't stop thinking of all the post-apocalyptic imagery of societies without greenery, or George Orwell's 1984, where the absence of grass lawns is one of the key elements in his depressing totalitarian society.
Besides, as a parent, I am keenly aware of grass' most important funtion: keeping our kids from killing themselves when they wipe out!
What do you think?
I would suggest different ground covers than grass. There are many that do not require as much water. There is a whole group of ground overs to consider, such as thyme. Fragrant too with pretty flowers.
ReplyDeleteMy front lawn will eventually be a whole flower garden as opposed to grass. Many plants and flowers take a lot less work (and water) than grass. There is a whole movement towards getting rid of front lawns and doing full gardens - in many European countries this is commonplace.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I hear! I guess this is new direction we're heading in...!
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