Anne Lovejoy, whose every word is gospel here in the Pacific Northwest, expressed similar sentiments when she paid a quick visit to our garden last year. We were lamenting about the lack of space in our quarter acre corner lot.
"Oh, get rid of the lawn," she was quick to tell us. "You don't need it. You'll have more room for plants." My husband who is one of Ms.Lovejoy's great fans - myself included - was quite appalled at her suggestion. . . and for good reason. The lawn is my husband's one unquestioned domain. Besides, he had just purchased a brand new mulching lawn mower. Get rid of the lawn? Never!
Despite their expertise on the latest garden trends and my own observations, gleaned from visiting and reading about so called cutting-edge gardens where lawns have been totally eliminated, I find it hard to believe that lawns have lost their importance.
Yes, I must admit that my lawn does puts brakes on planting space. My growing collection of exotics, still in their pots, scream or pout at me at me whenever I pass by. Widening the perennial beds, thus cutting into the lawn, seems at times the only solution.
Lawns do need constant care. Mowing, edging, feeding and fertilizing are all part of the lawn care regime - not to mention chemical removal of weeds. Few people are willing to get down on their hands and knees to hand pick weeds. Water is also an issue. Like smoking cigarettes, watering lawns elicits frowns from the P.C. people. Indeed, in certain parts of the country and even here, where water is plentiful, we can still experience months of dry, desert-like conditions when water is a premium. Gardening for water conservation becomes important and I am the first to agree to gardening wisely, to cultivating plants that suit the invironment.
But there is also gardening as an art form. Whenever I begin to feel overly guilty about watering, I need merely look over the fences on either side of us, to the wastelands of weeds, sun-charred and ugly that comprise our neighbors yards, or to those yards up the street made up primarily of lawn, with a few foundation plants to break up the monotony - and whose owners have invested in enough chemicals to warrent a a toxic spill sign on their front lawn. In comparison our garden deserves every drop of water it can get, if only for the beauty and satisfaction it gives to us and to others who treasure beauty.
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