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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
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So, there's probably always gonna need to be some watered, grassy fields. Grass is rapidly self-healing, grows quickly. You want to play sports on a sports field, you probably want to do it on grass, and AstroTurf is kind of a disappointing alternative.
We have the water available to do small parks, even in the desert. We can let people have access to a grass surface.
But doing it all over an entire suburb is really water-intensive. And a lot of people aren't actually out walking on their yard's grass and tearing it up, so they don't need the rapid self-healing that it offers.
California in particular -- with large population centers in arid landscape -- has seen some movement on xeriscaping, doing landscaping that still looks nice -- even if it's not as tolerant of being walked on. But it's still really not a norm.
EDIT: And one perk of doing something other than lawns is that lawns are really maintenance-intensive. Because they grow so quickly, the same thing that lets them repair damage from being walked on quickly, they also have to be mowed all the time to keep them short. Most plants that are okay with less water usage don't require nearly as much upkeep.
Colorado and large parts of Texas join California in this. In Colorado it's especially galling to see huge lawns of grass because a.) native flora are very attractive and b.) it is so god damn dry most of the year that it makes California look like wetlands, which exacerbates the issue since grass doesn't shade the ground as effectively from the harsh sun as native plants do, resulting in the need for more frequent watering. And this is on top of summers that regularly reach the hundreds, and winters that regularly get down into the negative double digits.
This is somewhat mitigated by two things: there are of course fewer people in Colorado than California, and much more importantly, fewer celebrities.
Even if someone really wants the sort of "meadow" look that lawns provide, as long as it doesn't have to tolerate the kind of foot traffic that typical lawn grasses do, you can get grasses and grass-like plants that are okay with a lot less water.