This summer, please remember that your lawn is not worth the effort of keeping alive.
During the last few decades, as we've seen the impacts of climate change steadily increase, we've had warmer, drier summers. We've had more brutal hot spells like the 2021 heat dome, but also a general increase in days when the temperature hits 30 degrees Celsius or more.
That kind of weather is hard on lawns. Grass tends to go dormant until it gets enough water again.
Here in Metro Vancouver, we are already at Stage One watering restrictions 鈥� lawn watering is only allowed once a week 鈥� and we're likely to go to Stage Two before the summer is out. That will mean a total ban.
So if you follow the rules, your lawn is probably going to die anyway. You should let it.
The lawn is an artifact of British upper-crust culture from centuries ago. Having a vast swathe of perfectly trimmed grass for cricket or croquet was a status symbol, especially when the trimming had to be done with manual labour.
Suburbia and lawn mowers made it possible for every homeowner to have a little patch of grass.
A yard is a wonderful thing. But it doesn't need to be a big, open spread of turf.
Lawns can be replaced in any number of ways. The Fraser Valley Conservancy has a number of suggestions, including beds of clover, moss, or sedums, or replacing the garden with a more landscaped solution, with rock gardens. Native plants are popular, including low bushes, ferns, and trees for shade.
Most of the alternatives to turf have the advantage of holding water better, while also providing flowers for local pollinators, including honeybees and native bee species, as well as hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths.
If you do enjoy having that swathe of grass, don't worry. It will come back, as soon as it rains for a couple of days, as green as ever.
But please, don't break watering restrictions to keep it alive. Our population is growing, and our summer water supply is not. We have to conserve what we have, this summer and every summer to come.
No one is judging anyone for having a brown lawn. But they might judge those with a suspiciously green one.
