I happened to be walking with my kids earlier this summer when we bumped into one of my son's school mates. We stopped to chat for a bit in their back yard and I noticed that there were several lush spots of green lawn when most other yards in the neighbourhood were patchy and brown from a recent dry spell.

The neighbour noted that they had moved their trampoline around periodically when they noticed how well the grass fared underneath.

I wonder if you could build and market a device that worked like a large retractable awning with a material similar to the trampoline surface, covering your entire lawn during the hottest parts of the day (when you wouldn't normally want to be outside anyway) and have it hidden away when the yard is in use and during the night and cooler parts of the day.

It could even be automated, sensing the temperature, angle of the sun, amount of changing shade, etc. It might be viable for smaller rectangular-shaped lawns that you might find in the suburbs, but likely not on an estate. Perhaps an roving cover that moved from place to place would work for large areas?

A built-in low pressure mister would likely help keep the lawn lush at the same time.

What do you think?