No matter whether you are experiencing the effects of a drought or not, with the escalating demands on our current water resources, water is likely to become more and more of an issue as time goes on. Efficient water management needs to become a way of life just about everywhere. Clearly those drier areas of the country are the first to feel the pinch, but good water management is becoming critical worldwide. And all ecological systems on this planet are connected so eventually the treatment of one area is likely to affect the next.

Even if you are not focusing on the environmental impact of growing lawns, you can certainly consider escalating water bills, and all that time and expense you’ll be putting in just for the honor of having to mow your lawn regularly. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to live with the easy maintenance of minimal mowing or no mowing at all?

There are so many ways we can rethink how we design and build our landscapes to keep them beautiful, useful, productive and eco-friendly. You can set your landscape up to collect and recycle rain. Store energy from wind or solar collectors. Build with recycled materials. Or try out so many of the new designs and products on the market. But you can start sustainable gardening gently without spending a lot of money or making major changes in your landscape with one simple step. Start off by converting your high-maintenance lawn into a no mow, easy care , yet decorative part of your yard.

Look into the right kind of lawn to grow in your geographic area. There are lawns that grow with little water and so low that they never need mowing. Two examples would be Buffalo grass (Buchloe) and Blue Grama grass. There are also special lawn mixtures that are now available to create the ideal, eco-friendly grass with minimum water use and easy maintenance. Eco-lawn is one of the fast-growing products that is offering an effective product for people everywhere who want to maintain a well-balanced, water-wise lawn.

Reducing your lawn area to a space where the lawn is actively useful rather than just filling in open spaces with lawn as a default will also help. Or consider replacing your whole lawn with a lovely garden that is well adapted to your local climate, including some of your more showy native plants or filling in open areas with wildflowers. Even large properties can sport designs that factor in areas of lawn complemented by other ground cover and garden areas. Good design can make no-mowing into an asset to your garden. Even smaller-sized gardens can make better use of landscape space by adding herb gardens, play areas, vegetable gardens and flower gardens. Rather than just filling in pars of your landscape with vast stretches of lawn, consider adding permeable paving, paths, eco-friendly and low growing patches of lawn and decorative or productive garden areas. You can make so much more out of your garden by reducing or replacing your high-maintenance lawn with a no-mow alternative.

Then, if you discover you become as fascinated by the all the exciting possibilities of sustainable landscaping, you might want to start learning about some of the many other ways you can adapt your garden to better eco-efficiency.