Photo: Gotland municipality
As drought dries lawns across Europe, a Swedish municipality is promoting water conservation and changing social norms with an “ugliest lawn” contest. The Swedish island of Gotland is a popular vacation spot. To save its strained water supplies, the municipality banned watering lawns and launched “Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn” competition to make a brown lawn something to be proud of. Competition judge John Mattisson called it a “fun way to change the norm of green lawns in a climate where they’re not natural”, and it worked - water consumption has dropped enough that the irrigation ban will be lifted on Sept. 1. Out of several truly ugly entries, the winner was Marcus Norström, who did not water his lawn the entire summer. He won a visit from local gardener Sara Gistedt, who will help Norström plan a drought-resistant garden.
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