|
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 Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
Didn't really find what you were looking for?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/rss.gif "Subscribe to our XML Feed for RSS")
(Read 500+ times)
