The grass is always browner: Swedish neighbours vie for ‘ugliest lawn' title
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Loading... - Hayley Baker
- 06 Sep 2022
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Residents of Sweden’s largest island have been competing to determine which of them has the ugliest lawn.
The competition is an effort by the municipality of Gotland to promote water conservation. After the island, located in the middle of the Baltic Sea, received a record-breaking number of visitors and residents last summer, its politicians realised that it needed to make drastic changes to save its water supplies. Gotland’s population doubles during the summer months and this places a heavy demand on water reserves and limited groundwater supplies.
According to a 2022 OECD policy report, water availability is projected to decrease by 13.3% in Gotland between 2021 and 2050. By 2045, the demand for water will increase by more than 40%.
The competition was created as the result of irrigation bans, meaning residents were not allowed to water their lawns. Mimmi Gibson, the acting marketing and brand manager at Region Gotland, said: “You might find it a bit strange that we want to pay homage to ugly lawns, but we have a challenge not being allowed to water our lawns.”
Gibson said the ugliest lawn contest would remind islanders not to waste water, and to talk about ways they can adapt their gardens to suit the existing conditions and the climate crisis.
The winning lawn this year was Marcus Norström’s, which the jury playfully described as “a really lousy lawn that lives up to all our expectations of Gotland’s ugliest lawn and has good conditions for a more sustainable improvement”.
Norström’s prize-winning garden demonstrates “meritorious laziness” and “great care for our common groundwater,” the jury adds. Read More…
