RIP up your lawn, says WA’s Water Minister Dave Kelly, who has declared war on backyard grass.

Mr Kelly is urging West Australians to rethink a sprawling grass yard “from your back step to your back fence”, labelling it a greedy guzzler that has no place in parched WA.

But the turf industry hit back, saying calls to rip up lawns would make Perth brown and ugly.

As hot weather arrived in WA this week, with warnings to save every drop of water, Mr Kelly told The Sunday Times a small section of lawn was OK for suburban homes but anything more was not sensible.

“We still spend 40 per cent of domestic water use in the garden. The days of thinking you need a football field-sized green lawn, that’s not appropriate these days. The days of thinking a backyard should just be lawn are over,” he said.

“One of the problems we’ve got is people think we’ve got a couple of desalination plants, we don’t have a problem. That’s far from the truth. We’re one of the places on the planet most impacted by climate change.”

Perth households are some of the highest water users in Australia, guzzling an average 223,000 litres last year, according to Water Corporation data.

Desalination is now Perth’s biggest and most expensive source of water, while 40 per cent of the supply comes from groundwater and just 10 per cent from dams.

Mr Kelly said being water wise did not mean living in a hot, concrete jungle but said suburban lawns should be only a small section of the overall garden, combined with shade trees and water wise garden beds.

Camera Icon WA's Water Minister Dave Kelly wants you to rip up your lawns. Credit: PerthNow

“We have to be sensible about it. You can still have an area of lawn in your backyard to enjoy and have the kids play on. My property from the back step to the back fence was lawn and nothing else,” he said.

“It was exposed to the sun and … wasn’t a nice place to be. We reduced the amount of lawn, planted some trees, put in some shade and now it’s much nicer to spend time in and uses a lot less water to maintain.”

But Turf Australia WA executive officer Eva Ricci said calls to rip up lawns were “astounding”, while grassed verges were often essential for car parking.

“Water Corp has done a wonderful job in killing off pride in gardens. People are so phobic about wasting water. People need to get back outside and start to feel nature again,” she said.

Ms Ricci said if authorities were serious about saving water they would introduce more shoulder season sprinkler bans.

Mr Kelly called on residents to dob in a neighbour if they saw Perth’s two-days-a-week sprinkler roster being flouted.

Water Corporation’s top tips for smart gardening:

1. Mix in soil improver and a wetting agent to boost sandy soils.

2. Mulch to reduce evaporation, weed growth, wind erosion and stress on plant roots.

3. Consider planting more climate tolerant plants.

4. ‘Hydrozone’, or group plants together with similar watering needs.