Vancouver walking tour highlights alternatives to traditional lawns

To help preserve Metro Vancouver supply of treated drinking water, residents and businesses will now be limited to watering their lawns once a week. It’s part of the region’s new water restrictions. As Ali Patargay reports, it’s forcing some gardeners to seek out creative ways to keep their lawns looking. Lush, hot and dry conditions are becoming more common in BC, and those are key concerns for gardeners. With lawn watering restrictions now in effect, people are questioning how they can maintain their yards and gardens while using minimal water. The Jane’s Walk, Mow It or Grow It event is aiming to help them find a solution. It’s got a lot of native plants that are growing in it, growing here, and you can obviously see there’s low maintenance. Low maintenance is what some gardeners are looking for this summer, plants that require less watering but can still flourish amid droughts. At this old Vancouver neighborhood between Yukon and Columbia streets, gardeners can find inspiration for alternative, diverse lawns. Yards with minimal grass but lush with plants, trees, vegetable gardens and insect habitats. It’s where John Chinook and Judy Chinook lead the Mow It or Grow It walking tour. Hoping to plant a few ideas on attendees. Gives you alternatives to what kinds of things you can do at home. Putting in plants that not only help the community enjoy the walks around the neighborhood, but they also provide homes for insects and things that that are needing them right now. Last year, drought conditions to reach their highest level in parts of BC. This year, the BC River Forecast Center is warning that the province’s snowpack is the lowest it’s ever been at this time of year. 63% of normal, all the well. Metro Vancouver expects a 50% increase in water use over the summer. There’s so many things that you can can grow now that are more drought tolerant because many of the nurseries are starting to focus on that. Native plants are often a good way to go. They don’t. They’re not as showy as maybe some of the other flowers are, but they are going to adapt better to our current climate. The David Suzuki Foundation has a program to curb the ecological footprint of turf grass lawns or lawns with the traditional bed of grass. It’s called lawn share. We’re encouraging people just to look at lawns in a different way because they do use an incredible amount of water. Some studies say that they use about 1/3 of the water in urban and suburban areas. Hannington says having more native plants not only requires less water, but could also reduce pesticides and herbicides, which then help pollinators beautify areas. You know, it can be a challenge because people aren’t used to that. They like their lawns. You’ve even seen what the city has done in some areas where they planted native wildflowers. It it looks really beautiful. A sight he hopes to see growing in more yards going forward. Ali Patarga, CBC News, Vancouver.