Would you get rid of your lawn if it was allowed?
 

This is not new info, but grass lawns are a detriment to the environment as a whole:

"According to the EPA, we use 580 million gallons of gas each year, in lawnmowers that emit as much pollution in one hour as 40 automobiles driving— accounting for roughly 10 to 18 percent of non-road gasoline emissions.

We also dump roughly 10 times more fertilizer on our lawns than on crops, notes Columbia’s Earth Institute. These fertilizers and the 67 million pounds of pesticides with which we drench our lawns ever year degrade, releasing compounds like nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 298 times more potent than CO2. Potential damages from agricultural fertilizer runoff alone were estimated by one study to cost $157 billion annually.

We’ve managed to make grass do the opposite of what photosynthesis is supposed to accomplish. A recent study out of Appalachian State University pegs our lawns’ carbon footprint at around 25 million tons annually.

It gets better. All America’s farmland consumes 88.5 million acre feet of water a year. Lawns, with a fraction of the land, drink an estimated two-thirds as much. Most municipalities use 30-60 percent of drinkable water on lawns."

What will they find to worry about next?
I like grass, so stuff the Columbia Earth Institute!

Growing grass in FL is nothing but a waste of time and money....ya can't grow grass on a sand dune!!

I like a grassy lawn, especially right after it’s been mowed and trimmed.

It is, and I have

I sort of think that all those statistics may be exaggerated a tad, but if they were all true...I love the well kept lawns and yards here. I would not do away with green lawns and lovely trimmed bushes. Since Henry does the trimming and I don't have to.

If getting rid of my lawn would benefit mankind, I would drop it like a bad habit.
I want to add in here, that if we would stop thinking of ourselves so much and consider what would be best for all, this would be a better world. Just because we Villagers can afford to pay high prices for water, don’t forget those less fortunate on the outskirts of our paradise. If my plush lawn is taking away their drinking water, then I will go Arizona rock yard.

Lawns are not a natural occurrence. They're completely man-invented. Grass is natural - lawns are not. If I could afford to gut it and replace it with a variety of native plants, stones, and potted plants, I would. Green lawns just look silly to me, I'll never "like" them no matter how pristine and how perfectly someone cares for theirs.

Well said. I agree. I have a lush green pretty lawn, but would prefer a natural look. Just not so sure the OLD GUARD of The Villages old-timers would embrace the idea of natural yards.

Some day, we will be the OLD GUARD. And then "we can be the change."

Bingo! Please hurry, I’m in my 70’s now. LOL

If we didn't have lawns or green spaces can you imagine how much hotter it would be here? Just take a golf cart ride around Court Yard Villas

Green spaces are great. Lawns are not the best green spaces. For some of us, they're pretty lousy green spaces. I'm partial - as I said already - to native plants, rocks, and potted plants. Plenty of greenery. Grasses - carefully placed and contained, and allowed to grow tall as grasses do when people aren't busy mowing them down to a couple of inches.

Tall lush green plants, wildflowers, herbs, shrubbery, and a couple of somewhat short shade trees that need only occasional pruning and no significant maintenance.

These things CAN grow in Florida, you just need someone to actually start growing it.

I like the innovation, of owners with the curved driveways, right through the lawn, hehe... Leaves only a small patch of grass or rocks for the weeds to grow..

I would go for less grass (the upkeep as age) but personally I like the greenery of it. Grasses were put here for a reason, as were the trees etc....but that's my opinion.