Eco-Lawn – Is The Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

I had an e-mail exchange with Franke James earlier this week and she happened to mention that she had enjoyed my post about ‘Water-Smart Gardening‘ and was wondering if I could recommend any drought-resistant grass species.

Franke recently went to battle with the city of North York when she discovered that building a permeable ‘green driveway’ was not permitted in the city. She gained a lot of publicity thanks to Toronto newspapers and news programs (as well as a post on Treehugger), and thankfully was eventually given the green light. For the full story, be sure to check out the post on her blog:
How my Eco-friendly Driveway got the Green Light from City Hall

Well now that her battle is behind her, Franke is looking for a suitable grass species for the PermaTurf® system she will be installing (or has already installed). Not being a huge fan of grass in general, unfortunately I did not have an answer for her off the top of my head, but I decided to see what I could find online. Aside from wanting to help out a friend, I knew there would be plenty of other people interested in learning more about this subject.

It didn’t take me long before I came across the mention a product called “Eco-Lawn”. With my curiosity piqued sufficiently I decided to learn as much about the product as I could.

Eco-Lawn was developed by Paul Jenkins and Miriam Goldberger of Wildflower Farm Inc., a native plant nursery and natural landscaping company located in Schomberg Ontario (~ 1/2 hour north of Toronto). Having heard that fescue grasses had a reputation for high performance with low maintenance, they decided to start experimenting with various fescue species. Eventually they hit upon a blend that offered all the beneficial qualities of fescue grass, while still providing the aesthetic appeal of a ‘normal’ lawn.

After a few years of successful testing, they decided to begin marketing their blend under the name “Eco-Lawn”. The rest is of course history!

Some of the Benefits Listed on the Eco-Lawn page:

• Drought tolerant
• No fertlizers/chemicals required
• Grows in full sun, part shade, and even deep shade
• Less vulnerable to grubs
• Reduced mowing requirements

I highly recommend you check out this video interview with Miriam Goldberger: Eco-Lawn

Unfortunately I don’t have any personal experience using Eco-Lawn, so I’d definitely be interested to hear from anyone who has in fact tried this grass.

Also, if you happen to know of any other drought-resist grass species, or interesting lawn alternatives in general, please let us know! This is a really interesting topic, and something I’d like to revisit again in the near future.

Related Sherpa Posts:
Water-Smart Gardening
Green Options For Your Driveway

Technorati Tags: eco-lawn, drought, lawn, grass, fescue, lawn care, xeriscaping, franke james, wildflower farm, lawn alternatives

Written by Bentley on June 29th, 2007 with 3 comments.
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