Grass lawns look lovely, baronial, manor-like, but they are high maintenance, require a lot of water regardless of their size. However, it is an American tradition, ingrained in us to have great looking lawns. With the price of gas for mowers and for those of us who no longer mow, but have to pay to have our lawns mowed we too are realizing that these grounds keepers have had to raise their prices.
With global warming I find that our lawn turns brown and crisp faster simply because we have been experiencing droughts in our area for the past 3 summers and even folks who live in the surrounding villages are experiencing water bans.
At this point many of you are thinking, "Does she expect me to get rid of my lawn?" No I do not, but if you consider doing it you would be doing yourself and our planet a great service. However, should you be building or establishing a new home or garden area then perhaps it is time to seriously consider going "green" with gravel.
Those of us who have traveled the American Southwest and the Mediterranean have been witness to many beautiful gardens, front yards and landscaping projects that have been established with gravel and drought resistant plants.
So if you decide to replace your lawn with gravel you will have to dig up the turf, lay down black landscape fabric and cover with 7.5cm/3" of gravel. Next cover it with a layer of 5cm/2" layer of smaller gravel.
Now you need to compact it down with your feet, a homemade tamping board or a roller. At this point you can get creative by softening the whole effect with pockets of drought resistant perennial plants or grasses. Or you can create an island in the middle of your graveled area with some larger stones to make a boarder around your island and installing some drought resistant perennial plants or grasses.
You may be the only one in your area with this type of landscaping and perhaps you will be setting an example of encouragement for others to follow suit in helping to "green" up our planet with gravel instead of grass.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love.
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
