City Holds ‘Ugliest Lawn’ Contest To Save Water, Underwhelming Patch Prevails
With temperatures soaring across Europe, it’s become even more of a challenge for homeowners to maintain their lawns.
But instead of pushing the city’s green thumbs into using more water to curate pristine landscapes, the municipal government of Gotland, Sweden, has challenged its residents to forgo the sprinklers and contest for the ugliest lawn.
According to Treehugger, water is already a strained resource on the island, located in the Baltic Sea. During summer months, when tourists flock to it for a much-needed vacation, the demand gets even higher.
In fact, as per the territorial review, the water supply in the municipality is expected to decrease by 13% between now and 2050, with demand estimated to rise as much as 40% before then.
To take part in the ‘Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn’ competition, homeowners simply had to halt watering their yard for an entire season, in line with the city’s irrigation ban, and show proof via an image uploaded onto social media.
“Instead of lecturing house owners not to use unnecessary amounts of water, it launched the competition Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn—a fun way to change the norm of green lawns in a climate where they’re not natural,” the organizers said in an email press release.
The ultimate winner, Marcus Norström, rightfully took home the prize of the region’s ugliest lawn, with his picture depicting a large, dry, brown patch littered sparsely with withered grasses.
As per the jury, which was quoted in The Guardian, Norström’s backyard was “a really lousy lawn,” though it did add the landscape “had good conditions for a more sustainable improvement.”
To mark the end of the competition, and the amount of water it’s saved, the city announced it will be lifting its irrigation ban from September 1, 2022.
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[via Treehugger and The Guardian, cover image via Ekaterina Kriminskaya | Dreamstime.com]
