Whether you have a home with a large yard or an apartment with a small lanai, plants create a luxurious mood. Attractive trees, shrubs and lawns increase the value of a home. In fact, if you cut down that big
Whether you have a home with a large yard or an apartment with a small lanai, plants create a luxurious mood. Attractive trees, shrubs and lawns increase the value of a home. In fact, if you cut down that big shade tree in the front yard, you may actually be reducing the value of your property by thousands of dollars. Just think how much it would cost to have a landscape company replace it.
The key to success is to place the right plants in the right place. Hot, sunny areas of the island require shady gardens to create a comfortable environment. Windbreaks are important to reduce excessive winds in areas such as Ka‘u and Kohala.
Some of my favorite landscapes do not include grass. Examples may be found in books including “Tropical Asian Style” and “Thai Garden Style,” both by William Warren and Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, and several books featuring the Hawaiian landscape.
Besides trees, shrubs and bedding plants, one of the main elements of many landscapes is the lawn. It might be Bermuda, Buffalo, centipede, zoysia, seashore paspalum or a mix. Whatever type of lawn it is, green and healthy is the key. It is important to remember that lawns generally require more maintenance, fertilizer and water than more deeply rooted ground covers and bedding plants.
In neighborhoods, it is pleasing to see green expanses of lawn. A green lawn can serve as the right setting for the homes they surround.
Artistically, lawns serve as the plain element in a garden picture, offering contrast of simple greenness to surrounding mixtures of color, texture and form in flower and foliage. If carefully done, shrubs and trees may be used without disturbing the unity of the picture. But in general, it is best to keep the lawn uncluttered and unobstructed.
From a practical standpoint in the tropics, a lawn serves a number of ends. First, it reduces heat and glare as the sun beats down on the earth. Green is a soothing color. Second, it controls mud and erosion. It definitely beats concrete and asphalt or gravel.
The chief value of a lawn over other kinds of ground covers is that it offers a pleasing place to walk and play, as well as being artistic. In a dry area, a grass such as Bermuda makes a successful path, or can be used for auto parking.
A maintained grass cover also offers one of the easiest ways to control weeds. Just mow frequently and fertilize occasionally, making sure the grass cover has sufficient water to keep its color.
Ordinarily, grass is not a good cover for steep sloping areas where it is difficult to handle the mower.
In England, turf is key to the landscape and has become an essential part of the garden tradition. Mainland Americans have inherited this tradition. They generally consider a lawn a necessary part of the landscape. However, in the wet tropics, turf is generally not a part of the native picture, since meadows are infrequent. Here, it is a good idea to stop and consider whether a lawn is an essential part of your garden.
Jungle effects with paths and patios tend to relate to the tropics. And yet, even here, there is much use of the lawn in open expanses around a dwelling.
A perfect lawn in the tropics is an expensive proposition. To keep it perfect requires constant attention. Just about the time you think you have everything under control, some new condition arises, and the lawn goes up in smoke.
Today there is a strong inclination to let the lawn be more informal along with the rest of the garden. This means that other plants and “grasses” — aka weeds — are permitted to live together. Such a mixed green cover has its appeal, being more like a meadow than the monotype lawn.
A semi-natural lawn like this has its practical aspect also. It reduces maintenance by eliminating most of the weeding and also the struggle to make one kind of grass grow under the varying conditions of sun and shade which make up the average property.
There is, no doubt, a legitimate reason for cultivating a green expanse around a dwelling even in the tropics. But let’s not make such a burden out of it. When a weed pops up here and there, let it be. The secret is not in exterminating the weeds, but in keeping the area mowed so that weeds cannot dominate and go to seed, keeping them from spreading too much.
Whatever type lawn you have, chances are it will require watering. Deep watering is preferred. Frequent shallow watering encourages shallow rooting. It is best to water in the early morning. There is less waste of water through evaporation at that time.
Along with water, green growing things need fertilizer. This is especially true with lawns. A fast-growing Bermuda may need fertilizer every month. On the other hand, zoysia may be fertilized three or four times each year. A slow-release fertilizer high in nitrogen is usually the best.
The important thing is to think green. Humans have created too much desert in the past. The old saying, “Rain follows the forest, desert follows man” does not need to apply to wise gardeners.
This weekly column is provided by the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
