My Standard Disclaimer about Lawn Removal
January 21st, 2008 
by Susan Harris
There’s just too much lawn-bashing going on nowadays. While I’m among the throngs calling for less lawn
and encouraging homeowners to lighten up, add some clover, grow it all organically and let it go dormant in the summer, I shop short of painting it as all bad, as though by definition it’s a monoculture kept alive by toxic products and mowed with super-polluting gas machines. And it’s true that I’ve recently removed every last blade of turfgrass from my own garden, but I don’t want my stories about the transformation to contribute to the demonizing of this garden feature that isn’t going anywhere, ya know. So can we NOT just substitute the old conventional wisdom about lawns for a new and politically correct one?
I’ll be linking to this article every time I mention removing my lawn so I can stop but-but-butting every time. A standard disclaimer seems in order.
IN DEFENSE OF LAWNS
- They CAN be grown and maintained in a healthy, environmentally friendly way. Just ask the folks at SafeLawns.
- Organically grown and maintained lawns are reasonably low-maintenance. And after all, compared to what? Ground has to be covered with something, and what else ya got?
- They CAN contain a variety of species, even some that provide a little for wildlife in your garden. I’m thinking particularly of clover, which not only is loved by the bees but is self-fertilizing because it "fixes" nitrogen. That link explains how.
- Functionally, they’re absolutely essential for a variety of reasons. Where else can your kids play if you don’t have a lawn?
- Designwise, they offer a place for the eye to rest, sometimes called a negative space. The borders surrounding lawn can be busy as all get out but the overall effect isn’t busy because of that nice calming lawn.
- On my hilly site, lawn has held rainwater like a trooper, though I understand that if it’s grown in highly compacted soil it doesn’t perform that function as well. But then it’s the fault of the soil, isn’t it?
Glad that’s on the record.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Susan: Good for you! I agree wholeheartedly with you on this one. I have had a lawn for…well, a long time, and I rarely put anything but lime on it. It is far from perfect but it is mostly green except for the purple leaf ajuga and it does provide a good frontdrop for the surrounding borders. Lawns are here to stay so we just have to figure out how to convince ‘the masses’ to manage them without harmful chemicals.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Layanee, you’re my first commenter here on Wordpress - I didn’t even realize people were finding it yet. I’m not quite out of beta and hte URL isn’t right yet but it’s close!
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I am honored. I just hit the Garden Rant link…I think! I wondered why I couldn’t access this from your other site! That last sentence is Greek to me! LOL!
January 24th, 2008 at 7:03 am
I think the most important thing about lawns is to stay away from pesticides. Otherwise you lose carnivorous wildlife such as bluebirds and mocking birds. And of course never irrigate or you will be flushing nutrient pollution into the local waterway.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:06 am
We moved to northern California six months ago. We are relieved to see that people do not water their lawns at all here in the summer months. We have a rainy season here in the winter months, so lawns are naturally green in winter. The entire county does not water lawns in summer, so it doesn’t look out of place. Tons of wild flowers bloom all summer and gardens have lots of flowers too. The fog and ocsional summer showers water the flowers. An environmentally friendly place to llive indeed.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I’m with you sister. Lawns are not evil, they are plants too! The problem is that most people don’t know how to properly care for a lawn and end up over-watering, over fertilizing and improperly mowing it.