Perfect grass: Waste of time or ideal backdrop?
Is it time to replace lawns with more ecological alternatives?
“So, you’ve got a perfect lawn. That don’t impress me much.”
Every time I look out into a sea of perfectly manicured green grass, complete with in-ground sprinklers, an annual contract with the local lawn pesticide company and an obsession with a common non-native ground cover that, quite frankly, is a boring monoculture, I cringe.
Sure, a little grass might have its place, but it pales in comparison to a beautiful, healthy garden full of native plants that attract pollinators, butterflies and other fauna. Slowly more homeowners are understanding the horrors that a massive sweep of perfect lawn can bring to a landsccape. Extensive use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides combining into a lethal brew that not only kills the soil the grass depends on, but leaks into our rivers and streams or into our wastewater where taxpayers are forced to pay to clean it again.
And, to make matters worse, that perfect lawn does not come cheap.
That might be the reason more and more homeowners are choosing to actually cover their property with an expensive carpet of synthetic lawn, all in the name of obtaining the look of a “perfectly boring lawn.”
For those who think the synthetic lawn is the ideal alternative, consider its potential environmental impacts: it absorbs heat, has to be sanitized from pet waste, it compacts the soil under it, and restricts any real hope of encouraging insects and worms to flourish either above or below ground.
Used sparingly, synthetic grass has its place I guess. It can solve some common problems homeowners in small urban yards face. But there are probably better, less expensive and more environmental friendly alternative ground covers or mulch that can get the job done.
Grass is without a doubt the most expensive ground cover you could choose
In fact, that green grass so many homeowners strive for is costing them big time.
In our front garden, all the grass has long since gone, replaced by plants, trees, groundcovers, stone, rocks and natural cedar mulch.
One estimate has the average cost of an American homeowner, just to water the lawn, at about $570 a year. That doesn’t take into account so many other factors including environmental/ethical costs of achieving that perfect green lawn.
There are the chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers (banned in many Canadian cities), lawn repair, aerating, rolling, dethatching and it goes on and on. Oh, and let’s not forget the cost of the tools needed to keep the lawn looking perfect.
The bigger the lawn, the more expensive the tools. Consider a riding lawn mower valued at about $2,000 for your average model. You can pay more, a lot more, if you really want to cut that beautiful lawn in style. Forking out $3,000 for the pleasure of owning a machine to cut your lawn for 5-6 months a year would not be an exageration.
If a riding mower is unnecessary or out of the price range, a regular high quality lawnmower should set you back between $500-$700. There’s even robot mowers that will set you back several thousand dollars. Then there are the the must-own, loud and obnoxious gas-powered edgers, the leaf blowers that now seem to have become grass-clipping blowers or dust movers in most urban neighbourhoods.
Add the heavy, lawn-crushing rollers homeowners have been convinced are vital for that perfect lawn.
Yes, crushing what little air is left in the sickly, chemical-filled soil so the lawn looks flat is critical. Following a good rolling, is when the aerators come out to pull plugs out of the soil to add back some of the air that was just taken out of the soil by the heavy roller. And, let’s not forget the deep-grass rakers known to remove thatch – better known by gardeners as organic material slowly breaking down naturally into the infertile soil.
And the fall brings out the leaf vaccums because no grass worshipper would want to leave any organic matter on the lawn or garden to break down and improve the soil.
Does anyone else see the absurdity in all this?
It’s difficult to put a real price on this lawn obsession, but it’s clear there are a lot of companies making a big-time profit on homeowners’ blind obsession with their lawns.
One person who decided to dig into his monthly water usage compared the same time period from May 13 to August 11th. He found that during this period his water usage went from 9,724 gallons of water to a whopping 19,448 during the same period year-to-year.
What made the stats even more alarming was that the difference was almost entirely attributed to one month - the month of May. The water usage in that month alone went from 8,700 gallons to 2,251 gallons. The reason? He watered his lawn every other day because he chose to lay new sod in the front yard. His lawn is small, requiring moving his sprinkler only once to cover the entire front property and he only watered for 15 minutes at each location.
What was the real price of laying that beautiful new sod?
Just think of how much water is being used on larger properties to obtain the perfect lawn.
It’s absurd.
Here are a few things to consider:
• The average homeowner spends up to 100 hours every year walking behind a noisy, exhaust-spewing lawn mower.
• In 2005, lawns covered an estimated 63,000 square miles of America - about the size of Texas
• Most brands of grass seed contain almost nothing but Kentucky bluegrass and other introduced species not built for most Canadian or American backyard conditions.
• A typical cost for spring treatment by a lawn care company can range from $300 to $500 that include aeration and power raking (both unhealthy choices for your lawn.)
•The biggest drain on our water resources during the summer is outdoor use, primarily lawn and garden watering, according to a British Columbia, Canada report. Compared to residents’ winter water use, summer use is close to 65 per cent more.
• In many areas throughout North America, most of the rainfall or precipitation occurs in the winter months, not the summer.
• A garden hose can deliver (and waste if left on) more than 600 litres (132 gallons) of water an hour.
• A typical lawn needs a maximum of 25 mm (one inch) of water per week. Any more is likely wasted and is beginning to cut off oxygen to the roots of the grass and threatening its vigour.
Why do we love our lawns so much?
Lawns are the most grown crop in the United States. That’s sad when you think that no-one gets any nutritional value out of this so called crop. Lawns are grown simply to make the fronts of homes fit in with the neighbourhood and the homeowners look and feel good about themselves.
In Britain, TV gardening superstar Danny Clarke revealed recently that small garden lawns are one of the most common mistakes he sees gardeners in that country make. Danny says sacrificing border size for lawn is a mistake he is seeing over and over again. The result is tiny, narrow borders with little room for more than one or two plants stretching along a fence.
Even in the official birth place of the lawn, gardeners are realizing the amount of work lawns, even small ones, take to maintain. Clarke explains, “You spend more time mowing your lawn and looking after it than you do tending to your plants.”
He goes on to explain that “lawns never look 100 per cent unless you are on them 24/7, weeding and feeding them. To keep a lawn looking good you need to be mowing it, believe it or not, at least once a day.”
Well, I’m not sure about cutting it every day, but the longer you allow grass to grow, the more stress you put it under with each cut.
Clarke goes on to explain: If I had a small garden I wouldn’t have a lawn. I would ban lawns and just have plants. Plants are what makes your garden. If you want an aesthetically pleasing space, then the more plants you have in there the better”
• If you are considering creating a meadow in your front or backyard, be sure to check out The Making of a Meadow post for a landscape designer’s take on making a meadow in her own front yard.
On our property the lawn is almost gone
On our property, the lawn has slowly disappeared over the 20 plus years we’ve lived here. What once took about 1.5 hours of lawn cutting and edging, now takes maybe 10 minutes. All the grass has been removed in our front garden, and about 90 per cent removed from the back. All that actually remains is a small round patch in the middle of the yard that acts as an open area and forest edge for the plants and trees in the perimeter.
According to an article in Scientific American: “To have a well maintained lawn is a sign to others that you have the time and/or the money to support this attraction. It signifies that you care about belonging and want others to see that you are like them.”
The long history of lawns
The lawn as we know it was invented in the 18th century for English country estates. In those days, owners could count on a cool, rainy climate in addition to an army of servants to keep up with the yard work. Introduced to North America a few decades later, European turf grasses like Kentucky bluegrass allowed North Americans to grow a patch of green on their property as a symbol of prosperity.
Well, at least we could try. Lawn care experts say most Canadian homeowners set themselves up for a war against nature they cannot win using the standard arsenal of non-native turf grasses—no matter how many hours of labour, gallons of water and piles of fertilizer they employ.
To this day, lawns continue to be a sign of financial success. Many homeowners hire landscapers to guarantee the perfect lawn without having to invest their own time to cutting, bagging and edging their lawns.
But the days of the perfect lawn are disappearing fast. Water, pesticide and herbicide restrictions, along with increased awareness of the environmental costs, possibly through increased social media presence, are forcing homeowners to rethink the value of a wasteful lawn.
Lawns are thirsty and bad for the environment
According to Scientific American: Lawns require the equivalent of 200 gallons of drinking water per person per day.” It reports that Californians, for example, have taken to shaming (#droughtshame) neighbours who persist in watering their lawns.”
As Bob Dylan once wrote: “The times they are a changin.”
Even if older Canadian and American homeowners refuse to give up their perfect lawns without a fight, their more environmental-aware children are slowly adopting a more natural landscape design aesthetic.
One only needs to take in the garden designs beginning to dominate shows like the famed Chelsey Flower Show in England to see that naturalized gardens are more and more on-trend. The growing movement embraced by a younger generation reflects a more natural lifestyle and the return of naturalized lawns welcoming more native wildflowers, encouraging clover and other flowering weeds.
Over the course of more than 20 years in our home, my wife and I have eliminated 80-90 percent of the grass on the property. It’s been a long, arduous journey but I have gone from probably two hours of lawn mowing to maybe 10 minutes. The great swaths of grass have been replaced by living and non-living ground covers. Natural cedar mulch river rock and pea gravel make up the non-living ground cover, while sedum, ferns, mosses, and traditional ground covers make up the remainder of the living mulch.
Gardening on a budget links
Ten money-saving tips for the weekend gardener
DIY Bark Butter feeder for Woodpeckers
DIY reflection pond for photography
Click & Grow is ideal for Native Plants from seed
Remove your turf and save money
Hiring students to get your garden in shape
This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you) I try to only endorse products I have either used, have complete confidence in, or have experience with the manufacturer. Thank you for your support.