Aibu to think people in the UK need to start accepting they can’t have green lawns all year?

[BuenaVistaAntisocialClub]

We’re in southern England, it’s been very hot and dry for the last few weeks. Unsurprisingly our lawn is now a yellowy brown colour. I expect when it rains enough later in the year it will return to being more green. But to me this is just how things are at the moment due to the changing climate.

Yet our neighbours on both sides seem to be in a panic about their yellowy brown lawns, and are spending hours each day watering their lawns with hosepipes in an effort to make them more green.

This seems like such a massive waste of water (and of time and effort). Yes I know there’s no hosepipe ban so they’re not doing anything illegal, but it feels like their behaviour is really misguided. The world is heating and the UK’s climate is changing incredibly quickly. Surely everyone is going to have to adapt their mindset, and part of that is accepting that your garden won’t look like it did 40 years ago?

Water is such a scarce resource, some countries already have wars and conflict brewing due to shortages, and these are only going to worsen. To be using so much water to artificially turn lawns in the UK green when we no longer have a climate that naturally supports this seems madness to me.

I’m used to visiting Aus and seeing swathes of yellow grass, which looked golden and like summer

But is what pp correct - Here it dies off after about a month?

It doesn't have to be one or t'other. We sprinkle ours every 3 days and its lovely and green, no brown. It only takes a few mins

Our lawn is looking pretty dead right now. Though I did drunkenly stumble and spill my Pimms on it the other day but I can’t see any difference.

Its very hard to kill grass.

Here ours sits under snow from December-March. Like a think block of ice ontop

Now, it’s barely rained since May. It’s usual May- September that it gets very little rain. We don’t water it. Our lawn is now 60% clover, we don’t cut it short, and it’s only just going patchy, despite no more than 2 min odd rain shower in months.

We are watering the vegetable patch from the hosepipe right now though. We grow a lot, and all water butts empty

I think you’re being unreasonable, only because you’re making a generalisation. Most people don’t have large lawns, and most don’t water them, no one in my street does as we have very small gardens. Grey water and rainwater is used for pots, not for the lawn. My own garden is planted with Mediterranean plants from the area I used to live, where there is little or no useful rain between April and September. No paddling pool, just a bowl of rainwater outside the door to wash hot feet. What grass there is is brown, but will recover in the autumn. It means my garden at this time of year is pretty uninteresting…but who cares?

I like near one of London's big green open spaces. Well it's golden brown, not green right now. And will probably stay that way for weeks - because no-one is watering over 80acres of grass. It'll go without water for as long as there is no rain.

It'll come back, just as it does every year when the weather cools down and there's rainfall. And the smell of the first rains on parched grass is wonderful, with the re-greening starting pretty much immediately.

It doesn't die. It goes dormant

direct your frustration at water companies not fixing major leaks leading to more water loss than people watering their gardens would ever achieve

People are wrong. Grass can’t go without water for more than 3-4 weeks without starting to die off.

Some of us live in countries where there are frequent droughts. Grass always grows back once it rains.

Ok, so I take it you think that there is only one species of grass on the planet then that inhabits all the countries of the world? Well you are quite mistaken.

Every geographical area has a few native species of grass. The areas prone to drought, have drought resistant grass. U.K. native grass is not drought resistant.

So climate change isn’t happening then? Because “every year” the grass comes back would only count for something if the climate were not changing at all.

Yes grass initially goes dormant, but it cannot stay dormant for more than a few weeks. Unless your London green space is planted with non-native grass, the way our summers are going the risk of the grass actually dying is getting higher every year.

You cannot take for granted what used to be continuing as it always was as the climate is changing.

That hedge will be raking a lot of the ground moisture also.

They can be a nuisance so make sure they keep it at a reasonable height.

Have football and cricket clubs stopped watering their pitches?

On the fence here. I really cba to water grass. My back lawn returns each year, small front garden the turf just died about 3 years ago, around 3 years after being laid. I have shrubs now.

I am baffled by your post, you seem to be saying your grass isn’t dying off but then in the same breath have stated your lawn is now 60% clover (not grass) and what remains is patchy. So in reality, over half your grass has died off.

Water butts are great (we have one) but we have only ever used it to water the plants not the grass. And right now it’s empty.

watering the grass in most cases is unnecessary imo. Yes it looks a bit shifty but such is life

Yeah I never water my lawn, who cares if it goes a bit brown, it comes good again. They wouldn’t do it if on water meter

@Discovereads - no. I’m saying I have planted clover seed over time. The grass always returns, but clover will stay green far longer and better for drought areas. Hence recommend to people who want their lawn looking green. Yes the grass has now gone patchy on the last week, but that’s 3 months without rain and will return. So no grass doesn’t die without 3 weeks rain. The clover is a suggestion to people saying they want to adopt garden for further hotter heat in uk ( I’m not in uk hence high temperature already)

YA only BU to say "people in the UK". In 4 years of living in this moderately rainy bit of central Scotland I have never once seen anyone watering our communal lawn and it is always beautifully green. But we should all be thinking about how our gardens can work for the climates we actually live in, not how we can replicate what we see in pictures. My allotment on the side of a windy Scottish hill in is never going to look like Monty Don's sheltered Gloucestershire veg patch, and I think that's all part of the gardening experience.

do they use sprinklers in america?
when i was in california that was standard
as shown in films.

i dont think people should waste water on sprinklers

Your neighbours would have a fit at my lawn then 😂 lots of brown patches (from the dog more than anything else)

Much better for the environment to have lawns than gravel/concrete etc.

and yanbu

I wouldn't dream of watering mine. I don't mind it looking yellow and dead. Saves me having to mow it

Nobody waters their lawn where I live. Mine is dead and brown at the moment so I don't need to mow it which is nice. It bounces back every time so I'm not bothered. I do water the plants in my borders though.

I would rather people water lawns than get rid of them and replace with patio slabs or artificial grass.