Reduce Grass

Reduce the amount of grass you have. Grass is not a natural use of space and requires watering, fertilizing, and lawn mowing (noise pollution).

Replace your grass with a vegetable garden or with sutainable landscaping (xeriscaping). Start by removing the turf and spend some time improving the soil by composting. Some resources for what to plant are:

• http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/pubs.html
• http://www.planttalk.org/
• http://www.xeriscape.org/

A few interesting books on growing more vegetables instead of grass are:

• Edible Estates
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)

If you must have grass, plant slow-growing, drought-resistant varieties. Learn more at

• http://www.csuturf.colostate.edu/
• http://www.thelawninstitute.org/

Remember to leave the grass clippings on the grass.

If you have a sprinkler system, get a audit on it. In Colorado you can schedule one through the Center for Resource Conservation. I recently had one and they gave me several hints to help increase the efficiency of our system.