The Disappearing Lawns

"Prompted by water restrictions and fed up with the demands of keeping a rectangle in crew cut, perpetual green, even some homeowners in famously rainy parts of the country are giving up on the traditional lawn...landscape architects have sneered at lawns for years [and now] the movement is clearly taking on momentum... Beyond the new lawn tinkerers, many cities and towns are now encouraging people to lose the Kentucky bluegrass, offering cash rebates to people who replace their lawns with rock gardens, perennial beds, a tangle of ivy, cactuses or other kinds of less water-gluttonous plantings."