Turf Wars

Whenever Master Gardener Sandy Metzger flashes a slide of a big green lawn during her free public gardening workshops, she can count on the same response from her audience -- a loud, collective groan. It might as well be boos and hisses.

Like Snidely Whiplash on the silent screen, turf has become the stock villain, a dastardly water thief in a bone dry state. It's a reaction Metzger would not have received even five years ago. But a series of events -- from a freefalling economy to a lingering drought to the rising popularity in home-grown Victory Gardens that has spread all the way to The White House -- have conspired to create a sea change in the way we view our landscapes.

In fashion world parlance, brown is the new green.

Throughout the parched North Bay, homeowners concerned about conservation and cutting their water bills, or eager to take advantage of government Cash for Grass incentives, are killing their lawns.

The lower water-use landscapes that are cropping up in their place -- swaths of Mediterranean plants, bunches of California natives, stands of cacti and other succulents, not to mention the occasional vegetable garden in full street view, are giving whole neighborhoods a radical makeover. One maverick rips out his lawn and other homeowners, envious of the sudden freedom from mowing and watering, follow suit.

Just as medical concerns about sun exposure are killing the sun tan as a fashion necessity for summer, making deep tans look out of place, the new water-consciousness is making the once ubiquitous suburban front lawn look as frumpy as a pair of Mom Jeans.

This new aesthetic sweeping through residential neighborhoods may slowly start transforming the look of entire communities as cities and private businesses stop defaulting to turf and start re-landscaping in less thirsty ways.

"Our generation and maybe the younger generation are definitely looking at lawns and not seeing a beautiful thing," said Patrick Picard, a landscape designer and contractor whose work centers around the post-lawn aesthetic. "Instead, people are seeing something that uses a lot of water and creates pollution by having to cut it and fertilize it. There are huge amounts of resources going into these things, and yet they're less and less attractive to people."

Picard has been involved in several public lawn replacement projects. Working for the city of Petaluma, he helped transform the landscaping around the Cavanagh recreation center on the west side. He sheet mulched 3,000 square feet of lawn and planted over it a mixture of natives with shady fruit trees and benches for people to sit and relax.

In Cotati, he's working on a project to overhaul Pocket Park off LaSalle Street, replacing a 100-by-75 foot swath of lawn with native plants and what he is calling a "Food Forest," with a layer of natives and edible plants. Picard, who lives just around the corner from the park, said has never seen anyone actually use that lawn.

"People are starting to see it as much more interesting," he said, "because you've got layered plants, contrast and texture and a lot of things fruiting and flowering, rather than this mere cop of grass."

After World War II, the tidy front lawn was so much the norm that it created social pressure to keep it up. But a 500-square-foot lawn gulps about 2,800 gallons of water each month and must be mown at least once a week. According to the Sonoma County Water Agency, 51 percent of the 150,000 gallons consumed annually by a three-person single family home winds up in the yard, mostly to keep grass green.

"Frankly, turf grass is boring," said Metzger, whose classes in drought tolerant design and lawn alternatives have been the most requested among the Master Gardeners free workshops this season.

Mitch Palmer missed out on Santa Rosa's Cash for Grass Program, But that didn't stop him from obliterating his lawn and replacing it with brick and just a few flowers and hedges. This autumn he'll plant two maples, taking advantage of the winter rain to establish their roots.

"My water bill was skyrocketing. I have four children and kids will brush their teeth and let the water run for hours. And then I had to water the lawn and it was killing me. I figured my lawn was sucking thousands of gallons a year," the 45-year-old contractor lamented. He said he's already noticed "massive savings" on his water bill.

"It will probably be $500 to $600 alone I will have saved on the front lawn. Granted it was pretty darn ugly for awhile. It was just dirt. But do I miss the lawn look? Not at all. I don't miss mowing it. I wasn't that attached to it. It was a pain in the butt."

-- You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@

pressdemocrat.com.