The Working Lawn

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The rear third of the back yard hosted a chicken house and pen, an arbor of Concord grapes that made fine jelly, and a large, old apple tree with low branches. There was no grass sod - instead, we had low, native, shade-adapted ground covers including native ferns, mosses and bearberry or Kinnikinnick ceremonial tobacco that I dug from abundant wild stands in the woods. The apple tree was never sprayed, so crops were small and worm-eaten - we made the best of it into applesauce. But the open-spreading three-stem trunk made the tree a perfect host for swings, rope ladders and tree houses.

I tossed clippings and trimmings onto a mulch pile in back of the tree and, from an unknown seed source, the plot grew up into a thick stand of Jerusalem artichoke-producing sunflowers. After frost killed the plants, we harvested as many of the delectable tubers as many we could dig from the soft, loamy soil by hand. Raw, the Jerusalem artichokes were like a crispy water chestnut substitute in salads and stir-fries. Peeled and cooked briefly, they served as a watery potato substitute.

There's no reason to consider our lawn example as the standard for alternative lawns. It is submitted to show how many options there are beyond the classic, labor- and resource-intensive green carpet. If you want to try your hand at an ancient technique that has enjoyed a modern revival, try...

XERISCAPING

"Xeri" means "dry" in Ancient Greek. Pronounced "zeer-eh-scape," this is a system of lawn and garden design, planting and water management that evolved in the semidesert areas, where growing populations threaten limited and water supplies.

Folks living in arid regions around the world have been dry-land farming and gardening for eons. Xeriscape is the method by which Native Americans such as the ancient Anasazi gardened; their descendants the Pueblos still use this method, along with modern deep-well irrigation. But the concept was formalized, named and made popular by a group of state and private water-supply, academic and landscaping experts in Denver back in the 1980s. It has been adapted in nondesert areas as well (called "mesiscaping" in well-watered Massachussets).

There are seven basic principles of xeriscaping:

1. Plan for water conservation and beauty from the start.

2. Create practical turf areas of manageable sizes and shapes with appropriate grasses.

3. Select plants that require little water, and group plants of similar water needs together. Then, experiment to determine how much and how often to water the plants.

4. Use soil amendments like compost or manure as needed by the site and the type of plants used.

5. Use mulches such as woodchips to reduce evaporation and to keep the soil cool.

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