My lawn is worse than yours

San Francisco Chronicle/Opinion/Joe Mathews, syndicated columnist, 4/17/15. "Forgive me for bragging, but my lawn's worse than yours.

"....  "As the drought deepens and the state revises plans for mandatory restrictions, California’s lawn culture has flipped, dirt side up. Your local community pillars, once celebrated for lawns and gardens even greener than their money, run the risk of becoming social outcasts.

On the other side of this flip is your columnist, who is allergic to lawn watering and all other forms of lawn maintenance. Now, at the dawn of this drier California era, I have become an accidental avatar of civic virtue. It used to be that if you didn’t keep your lawn a pristine green, you didn’t care. Now, you don’t care if you do.

#1 worst lawn, very civic-minded.

 ....  Reading the contradictory advice, you can see that the arguments during this shift in lawn culture will be as much about ideals of beauty as about water. That’s fine, but the legions of us who don’t care about looks need clearer guidance. How do I — cheaply — keep the front of my house presentable and water-wise?  If no answer is forthcoming, I’m perfectly happy to keep the water off. Let others bemoan the eyesore I’ve created. I’ll be celebrating my civic-mindedness.  Read more.

Note from article:   Joe Mathews wrote this Connecting California column for T
hinking L.A., a project of UCLA and Zócalo Public Square, (from their disclosure: an affiliate of Arizona State University, an Ideas Exchange that blends live events and humanities journalism).

Note photographs:  Left. House that looks like a Linda Mar rancher is by Getty Images; the house is located in Fremont, CA from a CNBC article. The maroon color house with trees is from Academy Bed and Breakfast. Right. The American flag lawn is from 100% Fed Up!  The two-story beige color house is from I can't sell my house blog. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh