Turfgrass Alternatives for a Mediterranean Climate

Description:
Are you thinking about replacing your lawn, but still want a “green flat place” in your landscape? Although turfgrasses have a unique set of attributes that are difficult to replicate with other plants, there are many reasonable alternatives if one is willing to make some compromises.
This webinar will cover:
· Turfgrasses, what are they?
· The history of lawns and why we have them
· The “water problem”: growing cool-season turfgrass in our Mediterranean climate.
· Turfgrass alternatives and their strengths and weaknesses
· Resources for more information
Presenter bio:
Henry Shaw is a graduate of the 2022 University of California Master Gardener class. He has loved growing plants since he was a small child. He has a community garden plot and has an extensive container garden for vegetables and in-ground fruit trees at his home in San Ramon.
Henry retired in late 2019 from a 35-year career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
His formal academic training was in geology and chemistry, and for the last 10 years at Livermore, he was the Chief Scientist for the roughly 1000-person Physical and Life Sciences organization there. Prior to that, he had worked on a diverse collection of projects and issues including nuclear-waste disposal, fission-fusion hybrid power systems, environmental microbiology and the role of the soil microbiome in carbon sequestration, and safe disposition of surplus weapons-grade plutonium.