Have a very brown day

Re “For L.A. lawns, brown is golden,” Opinion, Aug. 17

Thank you, Emily Green, for knowledgeably and clearly putting horticulture and history down on paper to help us see the obvious -- the new green is brown.

May your insights help us all to realize the importance of an imperative new way of looking at things, not to mention helping to abate and mitigate molds, root rots, soil fungus, mosquito puddles, slippery pavement, humidifying climate change, gas-powered edgers and mowers, worm-unfriendly chemical lawn fertilizers and weed controls and more.

Maybe we all could begin with simply cutting down a percentage of all our lawns and ushering in a new era of awareness.

Heidi Santschi

Santa Monica

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Few seem to understand how to reduce water use on one’s property without turning the lawn brown and/or killing the plants. One does not simply stop watering.

Any good gardener should be able to explain that you must train your lawn to have deeper root systems that require less watering.

I recommend training your property to require less water by applications of compost and mulch and by converting to drip or soaker systems.

Remember, any water used above ground will lose up to half in evaporation.

Also, one golf course will use more water in a few months than a few families will use in a year. Those managers too should learn how to water-train their lawns.

Last but not least, why are we not catching rainwater?

This water situation will not go away; we must behave as good gardeners of the Earth.

Andrew Lopez

Malibu