Susan is also blogging at GardenRant.The Great American Delawning Movement
In pursuit of my practically nonstop mission to turn people on to lower-maintenance, more nature-friendly gardening, let's look again at an American tradition — the lawn. Seems they've fallen out of favor because of the large quantities of herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers people dump on them (so much of which ends up in our rivers and bays), plus all the water that's needed to keep them green and the super-polluting mowers needed to keep them under control. And they're SO boring to look at.
Need more reasons? On slopes they're dangerous to mow and in the shade they're ratty-looking, at best. And unfortunately, this symbol of upper class leisure also requires intense labor on the part of the homeowner. Men in particular are often swept up in the spirit of competitive lawn care and devote insane hours to their care, so my message to you Torojockeys out there is: Get over it!
Possible Replacements
The Veggie Garden
Watch for news about Edible Estates, a national nonprofit that's creating regional prototypes in nine cities, including Baltimore. These front yard gardens, though sometimes a jolt to neighborhood aesthetics, harken back to earlier times when even front yards were put to good use. For information about the "fine art of radical gardening," check out their website.
The Meadow
A popular recommendation for sunny spots, meadows usually contain drought-tolerant grasses and both annual and perennial flowers that are either locally native or well-adapted to the site. Butterfly-attracting plants can be included, as well as spring-blooming bulbs. Just don't assume that meadows are easy or cheap, or waste your money on those "meadow-in-a-bag" products supposedly suitable for anywhere. (Although the Washington Post has recommended Prairie Nursery and Vermont Wildflower Farm as reputable sources.) Good soil preparation is required, as well as frequent watering and weeding in the first season or two, at least, because without mowing, meadows on the East Coast turn into scrubland and finally, forest. Once established, proponents claim that meadows need mowing only once a year and that eventually watering can be eliminated completely.
Woodland Garden
If lower maintenance is your goal, a shade garden may be your best bet, since shade reduces both weeds and the need to water. For already-shady spots, just add shrubs and woodland plants that are drought-tolerant, like ferns, hostas, liriope, sedges, plus spring-blooming bulbs. In sunny spots, think long-term and start adding trees next fall. Suggestions about species selection and design are available at the LessLawn website.
Hardscape
Lawn can be replaced with paving, gravel or a long-lasting mulch, especially over landscape fabric or another weed-reducing layer. While low-maintenance, this option is missing the plants we need to not only clean our air and water, but also to smell and enjoy. And clearly it wouldn't be the first choice of the local birds and bees.
Astroturf?
Don't you dare. Even the NFL players demanded it be declared hazardous.
Ways to Reduce Lawn
If you remove some turf in order to create beds around your existing trees, there are ancillary benefits to the trees, like protection them from the nicks and cuts inflicted by your mowers and distance from the lime you may be adding to your lawn.- You could just replacing awkward corners in your lawn with curved planting areas, which make mowing easier.
- The lawn-reducing technique I recommend most often is to create a curved border around the perimeter of the yard and fill it with small trees, shrubs, and spring-blooming bulbs. Homeowners who enjoy caring for plants might also include perennials, annuals and groundcovers. And be sure to keep any bare soil well mulched.
Why Keep a Lawn at All?
Because nothing beats lawn for family recreation and just plain walking across. Designers point out that it rests the eye, which means it makes everything around it look better. It also absorbs water well, thus preventing erosion. Although reasonable people sometimes disagree with this assertion, I can report that turf has done a great job holding the soil on my hillside garden over the decades.
Another provocative assertion comes from a source at a local mainly-organic nursery, who told me that turf produces more oxygen per square foot than "anything else" and that replacing it with a patio or a single tree would be a net loss to air quality.
And there's evidence that humans prefer open areas near their homes because we're savannah animals. I discovered that recently myself when I tried replacing my own back yard with a meadow — read all about it here — including some terrific comments from gardeners and professionals around the country.
Keeping Some Lawn But Going Natural
According to Washington Gardener Magazine, "The problem is not the lawn space itself but the overdose of everything from fertilizer and pesticides to water."
And although a Chesapeake Bay nonprofit cites our "improper and excessive fertilizing of lawns" as the biggest cause of nutrient runoff into the Bay, they still recommend an organic feeding in the fall because thick, healthy lawns hold more water than thin ones.
So do stop using pesticides, herbicides and synthetic, fast-acting fertilizers. And for more details, see Earth-Friendly Lawn Care Throughout the Year.
To go even more natural, plant some clover and leave your better-looking weeds in place. With a little attitude adjustment, some weeds don't look half bad. A horticulturist at the same organic nursery flies in the face of the American lawn-care addiction when he brags that his own lawn is more than half weeds.
What I Do
If you're hoping to reduce maintenance requirements, think twice about removing your lawn because the notion that lawns are more work than their alternatives is largely a myth. I've asked owners of some of the beautiful lawnless front yards in my area, including the ones you see on this page, and they've laughed at the notion that they're less work. Seriously laughed.
What works best for me and most of my coaching clients is to use the lawn reduction technique mentioned above — borders. Then, to fill them up, I choose plants that can do all this in their new location: look healthy and beautiful; resist disease and destructive insects; require little or no supplemental watering, even in droughts; and stay up without being staked.
But let's not forget about the wildlife. I make sure to provide plenty of feeding, nesting and cover opportunities for the animals I want to encourage. Then I let my lawn morph into a lively biodiversity of plants that looks brown and scruffy by late summer but greens up again after an organic feeding in the fall.
And I'm happy to report that my lawn is now small enough to be mowed — infrequently and imperfectly — by a small but kinder and gentler electric mower.
Lastly, a particularly nice replacement for lawn is a seating area. Especially in a shaded spot with a nice view. you might be surprised how much you use it and how much it increases your enjoyment of the garden.
This article was originally published by Maryland's Voice Newspapers. If you have comments about the article, send 'em along.
Stories from the Garden
- To Make a Meadow tells the tale of one now-beautiful garden, and the mistakes that were made.
- One Gardener's Quest to be Mower-Free elicited some great comments from gardeners and professionals about how they're coping with lawns and alternatives thereto.
- More great photos are in this article about Front Yards Without Lawns. And here's the sequel.
- Here are photos of a Frontyard Woodland garden, with a green roof thrown in for good measure.
- And here's my pro-clover article, including a link to what Less Lawn.com has to say on the subject.
- This article about artificial turf, and especially the comments thereto, taught me that it's a much more complicated issue than I'd imagined, especially in arid climates.
- How to Kill the Lawn? What to Replace it With? This article asks those questions and gets some comments.
- In Lawn as a Low-Maintenance Solution, organic gardening expert Mike McGrath is consulted for some wisdom.
- A landscape architect in California weighs in on lawn-killing, here and here.
- The blogger at Calendula and Concrete says "Bye-Bye Lawn." Seems she'd rather grow food!
More Good Info in Print
- Organic Lawn Care
by Paul Tukey, spokesman for the important SafeLawns campaign. - Down to Earth Natural Lawn Care
by Raymond - Food not Lawn
by Flores is making quite a splash in the "green" world.
And On Line
- And to join the campaign for safe, nontoxic lawns, check out SafeLawns.org. Here's an article I wrote about their kick-off event at the U.S. Capitol.
- Michael Pollan's Case Against Lawns