Why is lawn where it shouldn't be?
The simplest answer is that lawn is the cheapest part of a landscape installation and when brand new, looks great. New lawn on freshly prepared soil looks great. Parking strips and parking islands are probably the worst place for lawn. There is concrete or asphalt on most or all sides, and often times the soil is shallow or there is rock or asphalt below. Irrigation coverage is difficult due to small odd shapes and as tree roots develop, they compete for moisture. We believe that parking strips and islands may take as much as 5-10 times as much irrigation to maintain. A bad combination in order to grow and maintain lawns properly. In addition, these areas are difficult and sometimes dangerous to maintain due to nearby cars and obstacles.
What is the alternative?
Replacing lawn with just barkdust or some sort of groundcover are both good options. We have experimented with Sedum like on green roofs but, with marginal success. We are seeing locally and nationally the use of rock and are very excited about this option. Below are several pictures using rock as a groundcover that are very attractive and easy to maintain. Rocks do not need water and never die. Some have expressed concern about the liability risk with rocks but, we believe that is low considering the obvious benefits.
Last year we used the parking strip in front of our Hillsboro office as a test
case
for a lawn conversion. Below are the before and after photos. We are now using little irrigation and the parking strip is even more attractive.
