Green, Green Grass of Home

I've mentioned before that my wife and I are slowly working to replace our grass with native plant species. We're using an eco-friendly, labor-intensive method: tarping sections of the lawn for a season and then, once the tarp is pulled up, digging out the roots of the dead grass with a hand trowel.

So, I really appreciated seeing "Great Reasons to Get Rid of Your Lawn" posted on AlterNet on Wednesday.

So, unless you own a sheep, you’re actually doing harm to the environment every time you water and cut the green patches in the front, and backyard. There are 21 million acres of lawn across the country.

In addition to the water waste and exhaust emissions from gas-powered mowers (and don’t even get me started on riding mowers), homeowners use more than 78 million pounds of pesticides each year to keep their front yard “green,” according to Stephen Kress of the National Audubon Society. He also states that weed killers should be banished; simply mowing the lawn removes the tops of weeds and wildflowers, making their stalks virtually undistinguishable from their grassy hosts.

As familiar as the lawn may be when picturing a traditional American neighborhood, think for a moment: What went into putting it there in the first place? Laura Ingalls Wilder aside, the grass was installed on your property, similar to the way your man-made house was. According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn – in addition to rainwater. Then there’s the hose. The water doesn’t flow through it because it wants to – it requires energy to get from pipes to hose. In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.

Says the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average father of school-aged kids spends 1.6 hours a week on lawn and garden care – more time than he spends on reading, talking, playing or doing educational activities with his kids combined...

Non-native lawns are like so much else in America: status symbols that aren't really needed and unsustainable at that. I'm hoping that, in these financially hard times, more families take the plunge to get rid of this annual energy waste. Most will do it solely as a way to save money; I don't care what their motivation is.