Guest laugh by David Middleton
Being that this is the time of year when I have to start spending entire weekends on yard work, I almost agree with Mr. Holthaus on this one…
SCIENCE
Get Rid of Your Lawn
It’s a waste of land, and it’s terrible for the environment. You can do something better.
By ERIC HOLTHAUS
MAY 06, 2019This story was originally published by Grist and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
My strategy for finding a house was probably a little different than most: I looked for the one with the smallest lawn I could find.
The privilege of homeownership is increasingly rare these days, and I wanted to make sure my little plot of land would have a net benefit to my city and the environment.[…]
[L]awns are awful for the planet. Our addiction to lawns means that grass is the single largest irrigated agricultural “crop” in America, more than corn, wheat, and fruit orchards combined. A NASA-led study in 2005 found that there were 63,000 square miles of turf grass in the United States, covering an area larger than Georgia. Keeping all that grass alive can consume about 50 to 75 percent of a residence’s water.
Lawnmowers suck up gas and pollute the air: Every year, U.S. homeowners spill about 17 million gallons of gas while filling up mowers. We use tens of millions of pounds of chemical fertilizer and pesticides on our lawns.
All this effort, of course, isn’t cheap. Americans spend more than $36 billion every year on lawn care, 4½ times more than the annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.
[…]
My lawn’s days as a grass-based environmental scourge are numbered. I have big plans for my outdoor area: fruit trees, garden space, native plants. It’s small enough that this project should be manageable, even for a single parent with two small kids.
Slate
However, after reading Mr. Holthaus’ rationale for getting rid of his “grass-based environmental scourge”, I am now encouraged to mow, fertilize and water my lawn more often than ever before.
If spending more money on my lawn will cut into the EPA’s budget, I’m ready to break the bank at Lowes Home Improvement and Calloway’s Nursery!
A NASA-led study in 2005 found that there were 63,000 square miles of turf grass in the United States, covering an area larger than Georgia.
Here’s an idea for Mr. Holthaus: Get Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to write a new and improved Green New Deal Cultural Revolution Bill… Forcibly relocate all lawns to Georgia and then cover them with solar panels! Then cover Washington State with wind turbines. This would be enough solar and wind to replace coal and natural gas! Well, except on windless nights and windless cloudy days.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
But I don’t water my lawn so can I keep it?
I never water mine either. And to be fair, calling it a lawn is a bit of a push, it’s mostly daisies, dandelions, camomile and moss. It’s green at least.
A decade ago I used to have to water my ‘lawn’ (really a mixture of native grasses), but not for quite a while now. My cottage is rotting away for never drying out, not enough even to paint. Maybe this year.
My wife yells at me when I call it “lawn” and I even try to mow it with a reel push mower (Fiskar). But I weed it and enjoy a bit of green not hidden under the woods’ detritus. During the Fall (it is an active verb) I have to move hundreds of cubic meters of leaves just to give the grasses and wildflowers if fighting chance. I lost about half of my Snowdrops Galanthus sp. to the wet, rotted.
I only watered the lawn when we put it in. The soil was really terrible. They’ used the topsoil for fill and left clayey subsoil to try and grow grass on.
The best thing I ever did was take my son’s advice and put down an inch or so of wood mulch.
After two years the grass was growing as thick and green as a prime fairway. It still is.
Never have used fertilizer and only spot applications of weed killer.
Now I’m thinking, with all the rain we’ve been getting the last couple of years , to get some of the stuff they put on golf courses to retard the growth rate of the grass.
My contribution to my neighborhood is, after looking at my lawn, to make my neighbors feel better about their own lawns.
Yep, as I find from time to time at the bridge table, now and then you just have to dedicate yourself to helping other people feel good.
“it’s mostly daisies, dandelions, camomile and moss”
Same on my acreage except where sections have Buffalo Grass, which is so root dense that not even dandelions can grow in it (used for sod houses in the 1800’s), & requires no watering. Trying to get it to spread over the “field” (that section not a part of the house yard which is “mostly” Bermuda). Also fun to have acrobatic barn swallows swoop within 6 feet when the mower stirs up insects (and quite the sight to see 20 to 30 of them lined up on the yard fence rail taking a rest).
I grew up with eight acres of lawn, which I had a great time mowing with a small tractor. It was always mulched. Never fertilized, no other chemicals, period.
I have always had a lawn, have rarely fertilized, and never put any other chemicals down. I mulch the cuttings back into the lawn to maintain thatch against the dry (August) season and mow only when needed, which some years might only be three times—gasoline savings there.
Perhaps if we got rid of the darn plastic gasoline cans that have insane and unusuable safety pouring devices, people would not spill so much. These stupidly awkward devices are a menace to safety as well as cause gasoline waste.
Lawns have a purpose. They provide a clear area across which varmints and bugs have to travel to get to your house. This creates a barrier. Tall grass and shrubbery around a house invites vermin to live and forage right up to your walls. From a practical point of view, a lawn around a house is a firebreak, as has been demonstrated by the houses in California that burn so nicely because they have no firebreaks, per government regulations (patently stupid regulations). In addition, such a lawn is a “killing zone” as one can see the enemy or varmint coming across the open area.
I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs on 15 acres, and lots of lawn. One night, while getting a drink of water, I saw trespassers with flashlights checking out our barn and then, after turning of their lights, they headed for our house. With no lawn, they could have arrived at the house completely undetected. I’ll take a “killing zone” everyday.
I grew up with eight acres of lawn, which I had a great time mowing with a small tractor. It was always mulched. Never fertilized, no other chemicals, period.
I have always had a lawn, have rarely fertilized, and never put any other chemicals down. I mulch the cuttings back into the lawn to maintain thatch against the dry (August) season and mow only when needed, which some years might only be three times—gasoline savings there.
Perhaps if we got rid of the darn plastic gasoline cans that have insane and unusuable safety pouring devices, people would not spill so much. These stupidly awkward devices are a menace to safety as well as cause gasoline waste.
Nice post, especially pointing out the benefits of a lawn.
My father-in-law gave me a plastic gas can that has a trigger valve which controls flow from a hose that comes out of the bottom of the can. Other that the first time I used it, it doesn’t spill gasoline.
I’ve got 2.5 acres of grass, with a few trees. Out on Whidbey Island in WA State, we only get about 26″ of annual rainfall, and almost none of that is in the summer. So when my lawn goes brown in late June or so, it stays that way until September or October. It stays green all the way through to the next summer, though it only grows noticeably in the spring and early fall. I only water where there are decorative plants or trees I’ve just planted.
So I call BS on the “single largest irrigated agricultural “crop” in America” nonsense.
Not fair!!! Not fair at all!!! I use an electric lawn mower!
Leave the grass clippings on the lawn and let them decay back into soil, and you don’t need fertilizer. My tiny lawn looks like green velvet.
Someone tell Eric that grass is one thing that keeps soil around fruit trees from eroding, and unless he has a donkey at his disposal, he’ll still have to mow it.
What a silly!
And what about the worms?! Doesn’t he cry himself to sleep at night for the poor worms trapped under his tiny barren yardscape? What does “Green” even mean anymore?
Oh! The wormannity!!
I have a large lot with lots of fruit trees and garden space. My lawn is also never watered and never fertilized. I use a gasoline mulching mower but I have an electric tiller for my larger garden area. I works fantastic. A 13.5 amp that I
purchased from Sun Joe for 200.
My last gasoline lawn mower lasted me 30 years so I don’t think I will be replacing this one before I have no more need for one. Without fertilizer and water on the lawn it does not get used much anyway. My lawn can get a little ugly in a prolonged dry spell though.
Many birds make a living off the bugs on my lawn and garden since I use no insecticide. Crow, magpies, and robins especially like the dew worms on damp mornings. They make it a little hard to sleep past daybreak with open windows. They can make quite a racket
How about it Eric, if you want to live the green life pretty sure a unit in the Trump Tower wouldn’t have any lawn to worry about.
I’m glad to see his opting for politically correct “indigenous plants” , I just wonder what he is going to grow in his garden, lithops and tumble weed? No potatoes, no tomatoes … most cultivated plants that we eat are not indigenous. Same for the fruit trees. Bristlecone pine?
Good luck with cactii salads and barbary figs.
Speaking from the Antipodes, both [“No potatoes, no tomatoes … most cultivated plants that we eat are not indigenous.”] potatoes and tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas.
So how tightly do we define “indigenous”?
And how do we apply this definition to Native Americans?
Although, since they supposedly came from Asia, perhaps they’re not indigenes of the Americas?
“the Americas” is two distinct continents. IFAIK, both toms and pots were imported to Europe by the Spanish when they bumped into S. Am. Later introduced into N. Am by european colonisation.
No spuds for Eric Hothaus.
All humans came out of Africa, so there are no “Native Americans”.
I’ll have to remember that insight, Jeff!
“All humans came out of Africa, so there are no “Native Americans”.”
Good point, we’re all mainly (speaking from a European-Australian genetic viewpoint) mutated Africans.
The racially “pure” reside in Africa.
I believe tumbleweeds are actually Russian thistle and not indigenous.
“I believe tumbleweeds are actually Russian thistle and not indigenous”
And obviously Demmocrats can’t accept them.
Part of Putin’s plot, you know!
I don’t give a tinker’s damn what Eric Holtaus has to say.
My thoughts exactly. The man is an idiot.
But i thought grasslands were good for the envirement? Weren’t broad leaf trees bad and helped warm the planet? One week this is good the next eeek it’s bad. Spin the wheel to see what it will be next week.
Lawns were not always the flat, monoculture thing suitable for tennis, croquet, etc.. In the Cambridge University Botanical Garden they have a long bed divided into periods of time, partly to show when different plants were introduced to Britain. One section is a mediaeval lawn: it’s maintained at a height of about 6 in / 15 cm, and consists of a mix of grasses, springy herbal plants, small flowering plants like chamomile and daisies, and so on: the kind of thing you can lie on happily, and which attracts nice insects. The variery, density and height of the plants makes maintenance easier, and it looks good. When I get my house with a garden, I’m going to try it out. Sorry, I’ve looked for images on the web; when I get to Cambridge I’ll take some photos.
A point well made…
The invention of the lawn mower created the short suburban lawn we see today.
(If visiting the UK, you might note there are at least 2 lawnmower museums!)
As normal for trollop g. it has put the solution as coming before the problem.
Lawns were kept long before lawn mowers.
Lawn mowers were invented to lessen the work effort to maintain lawns by owners.
Very amusing, and having spent far too many hours work on mowing lawns, I tend to agree with him.
His other idea of concentrating all of the windmills and solar panels in just one or two places has great merit.
I think of the vast lawns of our newish Parliament house, covered with solar panels and windmills, and I am sure that we would son have a NIMBY from our pretend Green politicians.
MJE VK5ELL
I grew up in Phoenix Az, we had about an acre of well kept grass, which in that climate was very high maintenance with watering, etc, and my younger brother and I spent a good proportion of our teen years caring for that thing, because Dad gave us that job (starting when I was about 12) When we went off to College, I remember us thinking “ha! Dad is finally gonna have to work that beast by himself!” because we knew he was too cheap to hire help.
Damned if after 6 months of us finally going off, he sold that house and bought a new one in Scottsdale that had an all gravel lawn full of cactus. (xeroscaping) First time we visited, he told us “well you didn’t think I was going to mow that thing, did you?”
in all fairness, the xeroscaped yards can look very, very good when they’re done well.
I’m going to try cryoscaping my Western Canadian prairie yard. Having trouble finding anything that grows in ice. Maybe by the time I’m 120yo some lichens will show, or mosses, or mooses. The caribou can move in and do the mowing (all but the one in the freezer). Going to clear it with my snowblower – refuse to shovel the yard. A couple of glacial erratics will add character – diversity and inclusivity you know. Besides, the rocks from Nunavut were here first.
… grass is the single largest irrigated agricultural “crop” in America, more than corn …
Oh I doubt that:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Corn_belt.svg
That’s a lot of corn. Probably a lot larger than Georgia
The US is the largest corn producer in the world, with 96,000,000 acres (39,000,000 ha) of land reserved for corn production. Source: Wikipedia
Um let’s see, 96,000,000 acres divided by 640 acres per square miles comes to 150,000 square miles and the LINK Holthaus put up said:
According to a new study from NASA scientists in collaboration with researchers in the Mountain West, there is now an estimated total of 163,812 square kilometers, or more than 63,000 square miles,
So Eric Holthaus didn’t fact check what he wrote.
That’s how you can tell that he wrote it.
Environmentalists like Holthaus always employ emotions, not numbers.
And what numbers they do use (like 97%) are usually made-up anyway.
SJW’s in general..
Look at this article in the Graun:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/07/cambridge-university-britain-slavery
where we find such gems as :
“well beyond its two best-known universities. Among the institutions with a history of slavery connections are the Bank of England, high-street banks (RBS, Barclays and Lloyds), railway companies, insurance companies and even the Royal Mail. ”
Gosh even the saintly Post Office was elbows deep in the salve trade… when you check the source given what they mean is “employed after the abolition act 1833 a number of people who’s families had received compensation…” i.e the actual involvement of the Royal Mail was nil.
and:
“the British government paid out today’s equivalent of £16bn to former slave owners to “compensate” them for their loss of “property”, a national debt that took until 2015 to be paid off. Yes, that means the descendants of slaves here in the UK were, until just four years ago, paying off slave owners for their ancestors’ freedom.”
Willickers those poor West-Indian migrants… made to work like blacks to pay of whitey…. The truth? looking here http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8265/CBP-8265.pdf and here https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/476031/response/1153635/attach/3/Scan.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1 is that borrowing for slave compensation was moved from dedicated loans to main debt and then refinanced multiple times in the “4% Consolidated Loan (1957 and after) in multiple issues between 1833 and 1927. There is no actual record of how much “slave debt” was redeemed or carried forward at each issue it’s entirely impossible to state how much if any of it was carried by Afro-Caribbean taxpayers….
Don;t confuse the poor deluded fellow with facts!
Yup, I call BS on that too. I doubt the adult child has ever even seen a center pivot irrigator pumping 1,000 gallons per minute over crops all day every day during the summer.
What is wrong with having all of this acreage devoted to lawn? Are we starving ourselves by this indulgence?
Per Steve Case / Wikipedia: We have 96 million acres of corn. Indulge me a bit and allow me to round that up to 100 million acres (approx 4% fudge factor).
Calories per acre of corn, by an old source: 3 million (MO Cooper and WJ Spillman 1917: “Human food from an acre of staple farm products:” – since this is over 100 years, I claim back the 3% fudge factor in acres under cultivation).
So, multiply acres per year by calories. We get 30,000,000,000,000,000 calories per year.
Assume a planet population of 10 billion. Assume we want a diet of 2,000 calories per day per person, 365 days a year (indulge me and ignore leap years).
For a 2,000 calorie diet for a year for one person, that is 730,000 calories a year.
For a planetary population of 10 billion people, we need 730,000,000,000,000 calories per year.
Our USA corn production per year / calories for 10 billion inhabitants per year:
730,000,000,000,000 / 30,000,000,000,000,000
So, it seems we have plenty of food for each person on the planet, just with USA corn production.
Sure, but how much of that corn actually goes into making ethanol?
Wildflower ‘meadows’ are becoming quite popular in the UK. The grass and flowers are allowed to grow until July/August and then are cut and allowed to dry out to let the flower seed fall out, then the ‘hay’ is removed and composted. From then on it is cut occasionally until growth slows down.
The only problem is the soil is often too fertile and the grass crowds our the desired wild flowers. The only flowers that survive are the thugs such as nettles, docks and thistles.
It is interesting how much you can alter the botanical composition of grassland by giving it different cutting treatments.
At Merrier Wood Agricultural College a piece of agricultural grassland was turned into a lawn by regular mowing.
I have done the same myself, as well as doing the reverse process by treating the grass as a hay meadow.
Much the same difference was caused by intensive sheep grazing on the ẞouth Downs where a short springy turf was produced, much favoured by walkers.
Walking through hay meadows is not looked on favourably byfarmers! It flattens the grass so it cannot be cut properly by the mower.
In addition I don’t water my lawn, dry weather provides a break from weekly mowing.
I cut the grass with a mulching mower, so don’t need to apply fertiliser as the nutrients are recycled.
I don’t cut too tight so the weeds have less chance to germinate, and with any docks, thistles and dandelions that do make it through the turf I cut off the tap root just below the rosette which weakens and eventually kills them over time.
Here in East Texas, our average rainfall so far this year should have been 14 inches; so far we’ve got 26″, and 4 – 5 more inches coming in the next few days. Every lake is overflowing, a bunch are shut down because all the docks and ramps are under water.
Why is he so worried about running out of water?
Should be a good season for quail.
WWS,
Here in Terrell, TX we got 4 & 3/4 inches this morning.
…And it’s headed your way. 🙂
You’re Welcome!
Kinda high humidity for a ‘perma-drought’, isn’t it? };>)
I agree that lawns are a boring PITA. All summer long, we have some kind of flowers in bloom. The crocuses are just at the end of their show. Some of the flowers in the front bed are coming into bud.
We have a bunch of native plants, some of which were volunteers. That makes maintenance much easier. We have lots of insects, birds, and a bit of wildlife but, frankly, I could do without the skunk.
Skunks seek out, dig up and eat yellow jackets nests, so they have my blessings.
I’m pretty sure I don’t have skunks, so when I see the below ground yellow jacket nests destroyed I have always assumed possum.
Does this mean that we should outlaw golf courses? The president won’t like that.
Glad you mentioned golf courses. I read somewhere, possibly on this site, that golf courses consume more water than fracking rigs. Let’s frack instead of whack would be a good green slogan?
Golf courses, if managed well, can be a boon to the environment. In Florida, many contract with local water treatment plants to pump their excess treated water out of the treatment plant onto the course. Thus the signs on all the golf course lakes about being treated water, do not drink. Most have retention ponds that are designed to have water flow through an area of native plants which filter out most of the pollutants. These water areas are abundant with wildlife. You just have to watch out for the gators sunning themselves on the banks during colder weather.
Local rules question: Don’t you get a free drop if your ball comes to rest against an alligator? I’d assume that sensible rule would be in place, but then how do you obtain the ball for a free drop?
[The mods wonder if it is truly a “free drop” if the alligator drops an eaten ball. .mod]
1-4/10 Dangerous Situation; Rattlesnake or Bees Interfere with Play
Q. A player’s ball comes to rest in a situation dangerous to the player, e.g., near a live rattlesnake or a bees’ nest. In equity (Rule 1-4), does the player have any options in addition to playing the ball as it lies or, if applicable, proceeding under Rule 26 or 28?
A. Yes. It is unreasonable to expect the player to play from such a dangerous situation and unfair to require the player to incur a penalty under Rule 26 (Water Hazards) or Rule 28 (Ball Unplayable), although these Rules remain an option, if applicable.
Then there is this 🙂
The local small airfield has a municipal golf course lined up with the main runway rather than zoned Residential / apartment complex. Thought it was rather wise when I first saw it.
“…63,000 square miles of turf grass in the United States…”
—–
That’s a whole lot of carbon sequestration.
How the hell I train my putts without a lawn with a hole ?
BTW, is synthetic grass better for the environment ?
no! it breaks down releases arsenic in some of it, I read ovals in america were off limits due to that. it provides NO cooling is scratchy underfoot and pretty useless in high traffic areas.
our greentard headmistress ripped our local schools oval up for synthetic the kids have nowhere to sit and the yards very hot in summer and a sodden mess in winter as theres nothing soaking the water up like grass roots did, and the rash/burns from kids sliding falling on it also meant a lot of kids wont play there unless its forced sport.
Ovals?
Given his position on climate change i don’t find much wrong with what he says in the article above (there are plenty other things he says that i don’t agree with) ,at least he is making some effort to practice what he preaches.
Making some effort may be commendable. Shame he’s still ignorant and stupid about it, but hey, you can’t expect a greenie to understand stuff.
I read on WUWT years ago that grasses (probably native prairie and similar) take up more Carbon Dioxide than do trees on whole. Grasses grow much faster than trees do and there is so much more of it, so this makes sense to me.
Personally, I’ve destroyed most of my garden and planted grass. It’s quicker and easier to maintain than gardening.
For me, the most important benefit of lawns is giving distance between my neighbours and me.
This person is advocating for agenda 2030 ( or whatever it’s called these days), but in a sly and deceitful way, where we’re all assigned a small box as a dwelling in state prescribed locations. Provided we behave ourselves and obey all the rules.
Holthaus is a single parent for very good reasons.
I feel sorry for any children he has
I understand perfectly how he is ‘a single father’
Question remains, how did he *ever* get to be a father?
Was somebody drunk at the time?
Or high on sugar of course…..
It’s not like I love yard work, but I’ve thought of replace it with asphalt and painting it green. Then add potted silk flowers. Here in Ohio we have had the perfect growing weather. Mr grass grows a olittle over an 1/2″ every day. I’m tried of cutting grass.
In some places I place a big tarp over the grass and weeds and leave it for a couple of weeks until everything dies. Repeat as necessary. IMO cutting grass is a noisome curse.
The only thing I really hate about mowing is the wrestling with tree branches, especially my Monkey Puzzle tree. That thing hurts! And when the walnut trees are heavy with nuts, they’re a right pain.
Lol i have a garden like that: semi wild with lots of bushes and a small plot with wild grass.
It’s ways nicer to walk barefeet then those mowed lawns
I have a large lawn area and enjoy watering, fertilising and mowing. After reading this article, I’m now thinking of adding some livestock 🙂
We heard this same stuff in the 1960’s, I think from Erlich or Nader. We were told to end the monoculture of grass and grow corn to avoid mass starvation. I am not making this up.
In Boston they stopped mowing the State House lawn. Then they got snakes and rats.
I lived through this nonsense.
Oh, they said lawns were a hold over from British imperialism.
Let’s check back in 5 years and see how his garden is doing.
I just posted a note, above, about whether we are starving, and if converting lawn to cornfield would be needed to solve the problem.
I’ve long been a fan of xeriscaping. Mostly for the aesthetics and bird habitat. If others adopt it because they are deluded, I’m fine with that as long as their front yards have more visual appeal.
We don’t have a lawn per se, but open areas interspersed with flower gardens and trees. The part I call the yard gets mowed perhaps 4 times in all – basically late May or early June, then probably early July, and some time in August, and a final cutting in Sept. The grass (many different varieties) is liberally laced with dandelions (which we love), and other wildflowers including an area of milkweed which I leave (for the Monarchs and bees), and it all can get quite tall – sometimes 3′ or more. My DR Mower doesn’t care, and won’t clog, even if it’s wet. I also have other areas I may mow once a season, and some I may mow every 2 or 3 years. The grass and flowers just do their own thing, without my help – no watering or fertilizing. Any cut grass I rake up (I don’t always) gets composted. The crabapple trees provide food for wildlife. That’s not all, either. We recycle, mainly because the local dump became a recycling center, and it’s “free”. Our trash is clean – we compost, and any non-compostable garbage goes into plastic containers and is kept frozen until the next trip (we only go every 2 or 3 months). We also don’t fly – ever, and our driving is minimal, perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 miles a year. We don’t eat red meat, and only occasionally, chicken or turkey or seafood. I don’t barbecue. There’s plenty more I could mention. And yet, despite all this, and despite the fact that our “carbon footprint” is likely way lower than a lot of True Believers like Eric, we would be deemed evil “deniers” because we not only don’t believe any of the CAGW nonsense – we laugh at it. Go figure.
Well good for you I guess, but not thanks.
Home ownership is a right, not a “privilege”, in free countries.
how much gasoline do they spend driving to the gym to get a comparable workout? How much effort into carbon capture? What do we do with the recovered lawn space? new rooftops or parking lots?
I hated my lawn – didn’t water it and loved dry spells so I didn’t have to cut it as often. My wife vetoed astroturf and rocks over landscape fabric. I got fed up with it and 30 years ago I built a new house in the middle of an old growth forest. (You wouldn’t think you could find such land in northern Delaware. ) Had to cut down 10 or 12 big 80′ high trees (couldn’t do that in CA, but I wouldn’t have had any grass in that desert landscape) so I guess it wasn’t such a green idea. No more grass to cut, but the day long leaf harvest each fall is impressive.
Love my lawn. Love mowing the emerald green and keeping it clean. I use very little fertilizer and it goods good midday shade so not a lot of watering. I pluck weeds by and by and large and mulch. I like mowing in my bare feet in the nice cool, emerald green carpet. And it looks great right now.