Sustainable Gardening Blog

Did you know that: 

• More herbicides per acre are dumped on lawns than on the fields of agribusiness.
•  In the U.S. an estimated 7 million birds are killed yearly by lawn-care pesticides. 
• Phosphorus run-off from lawn fertilizer causes algae blooms that suck oxygen out of lakes, asphyxiating fish.
• A single golf course in Tampa, Florida uses 178,800 gallons of water every day, enough to meet the daily water needs of over 2,200 people.
• On average, 7,600 Americans are injured every year using lawn mowers, about the same number as  firearms.

I learned all that from American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg.  Reviewers have aptly compared it to Fast Food Nation - it’s that well written and that important.

Addicted to green

Who’s to blame for all this? The American love of lawns began with the upperclass emulating the landed gentry of England and spread to middle class neighborhoods after World War II, especially in new communities like Levittown, NY, where residents were encouraged to apply fertilizer a remarkable 5 to 6 times a year because super-green lawns "stamp inhabitants as good neighbors, desirable citizens".  The invention of the power mower and advertising for perfect lawns by industry giant Scotts sealed the new ethic of the American lawn for decades to come.  Proof of Scotts’ marketing power (and the malleability of the American consumer) is the fate of clover.  Where previously it had been routinely included in grass seed mixes for its nitrogen-fixing properties, when it was discovered that the new wonder-herbicide 2,4-D killed clover along with crabgrass, Scotts turned on a dime and declared it to be an undesirable weed, and public opinion quickly followed. 

Most worshipers at the Church of the Perfect Lawn are men, and Steinberg thinks it’s because compulsive lawn care gives them a feeling of control - a feeling so often missing on the job.  So ad agencies write copy like: "Show the world who’s boss" and "You’re the boss when you buy a Lawn-Boy," pitches that appeal to notions of manliness, and it works all too well.

Lawn care advice from Scotts is also very successful, convincing us that multiple "steps" or applications of their products are required.  But it turns out that feeding the lawn as early as they recommend does not result in "strong roots" but rather, "sacrifices root growth for shoot growth, as any knowledgeable turf specialist will tell you," according to Steinberg.  Not to mention that all those synthetic chemicals destroy beneficial soil dwellers, like earthworms and the millions of microorganisms that we can now see in healthy soil, thanks to the invention of the electron microscope.  Those multiple applications waste money and time, too, as studies have shown that the amount of nitrogen recommended by Scotts could be reduced by half without any effect on the quality of the turf, so long as grass clippings are left in place. But don’t assume that Scotts’ organic fertilizers are benign alternatives to the synthetic ones.  In fact,  the phosphorus from an organic source produces the same algae blooms as the average synthetic weed-and-feed product, according to Steinberg.

But it’s not just Scotts that’s reading the "green" handwriting on the wall.  The American lawn industry has launched their "Project EverGreen" to shore up support for conventional lawn care.  The campaign tells the American homeowner to "pat yourself on the back for being a good environmental steward by working hard to properly maintain your home lawn and landscape."  They even claim - with a straight face - that turfgrass is an "environmental hero" for the amount of oxygen it releases into the air (as if that’s in short supply.)  But their calculations assume that if we didn’t grow turf, we’d blacktop our backyards when in fact, if we replaced turf with trees and shrubs a lot more oxygen would be produced.

Of course Scotts, like all makers of dangerous products, relies on its pro forma warning to "Read and follow all label directions."  But surveys show that nearly half of us fail to read and follow label instructions. (No surprise there - have you ever tried to figure them out?  Steinberg calls them "about as enlightening as watching daytime television.")  And only the active ingredients are even listed, not the inert ingredients, though even the EPA concedes that they "may be more toxic than the active ingredient."

Home-grown anti-lawn activism

What companies like Scotts and TruGreen are up against is a rising tide of anti-lawn sentiment that won’t be dissipating any time soon, and it started, according to American Green, with Takoma Park’s Fruitarian Network, a group that opposed even push mowers.  Steinberg speculates that "There must be something about the lawns in this suburb that turns people off to the mowing Establishment" because next came Citizens Against Lawn Mower Madness, founded by local enviro activist Mike Tidwell.  "Tidwell is not against lawns, but he and his group objected to the injuries, pollution, and noise brought on by the power mower."  And Mike tells me that yes, he still invites people to "test drive his tufu-powered lawn mower."  

 Another prominent lawn-basher is best-selling author Michael Pollan, whose 1991 gardening book Second Nature is  considered a lawn expose.  Cornell’s "Turf Guy" Frank Rossi -  a big name in academic circles - is leading the charge against overfertilization, among other ills of the corporate lawn care regime.  Rossi writes, "We need to give up our perfect-lawn ideal - it’s costing the U.S. plenty" and "Corporations have made huge profits while pushing the cost of perfect - the air and water pollution, the adverse health effects of pesticides, the power-mower injuries and resulting psychological trauma - onto the rest of American society."  TV gardening guru Paul Tukey started the nonprofit SafeLawns.org to promote organic lawn care nationally (including a demonstration site on the National Mall) and the University of Minnesota is pushing their Low Input Lawn Care program with advice very similar to Rossi’s.

And then there’s Steinberg himself.  He’s an environmental historian at Case Western Reserve who sees harmful effects on our spirits, too. "Perhaps the biggest single cost is that by buying into the corporate paradigm and making a fetish of green, weed-free, ultra-trim grass, Americans have alienated themselves from their very own yards."  And here’s a shocker: "Research shows that people who evince concern for the environment are more likely to use chemicals on their yards than those who are less ecologically aware."

So how about government action?  Not waiting for the industry to reform itself, jurisdictions like Madison, Wisconsin and 70 towns in Canada, including Toronto, have banned phosphorus in lawn fertilizer.   Further proof that Canada is way ahead of us in environmental protection, five of its provinces have banned the use of all pesticides for ornamental purposes, and the big-box stores have even removed them from their stores country-wide.  Am I the only one still imagining where we’d be if President Gore had only been inaugurated? I didn’t think so.

For more information, see Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey, Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels, and Second Nature by Michael Pollan. The wisdom of Frank Rossi and other progressive lawn experts at Cornell are available at this terrific website.  And there’s lots more great reading in American Green than I could cover here -  about golf, biotech issues, blowers, pro-turfgrass weed laws, the plight of lawn care workers, and whether prairies really work as lawn replacement (in the East, not so much).

That’s the version I sent to my local paper.  Readers here WILL see lots more from the Steinberg book, though, coz there are too many meaty issues there NOT to. 

Listen up!  Kojo Nnamdi’s interview with Safelawns.org crusader Paul Tukey should be required listening for everyone who tends a patch of lawn.  That way, when people ask me about how to have a perfectly good lawn without the use of toxic products or constant watering I can just answer:  "What he said."  Here’s the link. 

 Here’s Organic Gardening editor Scott Meyer in his April 2008 column, titled "High on Grass":

I’m not declaring a War on Lawns.  I have a lawn, and I live in the suburbs, where the most hard-core grass growers congregate.  I don’t even want to get rid of my lawn, because grass is the most reliable and easiest-to-maintain (yes, I mean easiest) groundcover for large sunny areas. Lawns are also the ideal setting for baseball, soccer, tag, and other games that break out where kids gather.  And in the case of my lawn, the clover and onion grass that spring up amid the turfgrass feed fast-growing (and fat-growing) baby bunnies spring to fall. [Bolding added.]

I am, however, advocating an intervention. 

He goes on to enthusiastically endorse the SafeLawns.org campaign, saying you don’t even have to write a check to help.  "You just have to quit using the chemicals.  Go cold turkey."

Well said, Scott!  Now when I tell people that lawns CAN be low-maintenance - if grown organically - and I get the inevitable look, I’ll just quote you.

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.

Here’s why I ask.  This is in my next-door neighbor’s back garden by Holt Jordan.  With its sprinkling of evergreens, fabulous stonework, and two ponds with a waterfall between them, even winter looks damn good.

But imagine instead of these patches of cold season lawn there were just mulch, or bare earth above herbaceous plants that are hiding for the winter?  Or compare it to the muddy expanse where turfgrass used to be in my own backyard, which is now SO NOT PRETTY I won’t even photograph it.  (It’s sealed off from public display by its status as Work in Progress, I tell myself.)

Now that I’ve cavalierly, possibly rashly banned lawn as a groundcover from my property, is it really so terrible?  These patches may even be maintained organically - I know the folks at Safe Lawns promise it can look this good without the gardener behaving badly.  Not a bad deal, I say.

The other day I noticed what looked like streaks across my front lawn, the cute little oval I’ve written about before.  My first, nonsensical thought was: Could it be the light?  But you’ve probably already ID’d the problem - sloppy fertilizer application, specifically by hand, not spreader.  Why, when I’ve read dozens of times that we’re supposed to use spreaders - any spreader, even the hand-held kind - did I use the gloved-hand-in-bag technique that produced this result? Because I’m special; I can shrug off advice I consider overly fussy and mechanical. Real organic gardeners use their hands right?

See, after years of completely neglecting my lawn I discovered, while researching an article on organic lawn care, that lawns really DO need supplemental nitrogen; without it they get patchy, just like mine.  So like the dubie gardener I like to think I am, I applied a slow-release fertilizer in September and the results are in.  Turns out it really works - where it’s actually applied.  Human error strikes again.

First, to vent.  I haven’t posted in a few days because my whole photographic world is in shambles.  I won’t burden you with the details but think New Editing Program, New Pixel-Packed Camera, the Burning and Copying of countless CDs and their subsequent Storage for ready Retrieval, and finally, Old Editing Program that suddenly won’t even talk to me, complaining of a "full scratch disk."  I’ve heard that one that before.  But because we Southerners know how to carry on in adversity, I’m choosing lawns as a good photoless topic and forging ahead.

Lawns are a huge topic these days, specifically how to reduce their size or even get rid of them altogether.  Then there’s the more moderate approach that I took in my recent column, "Earth-Friendly Lawn Care Throughout the Year,"  in which I lay out the consensus among environmentally responsible experts - to use only organic products, mow higher, tolerate some weeds, and so on.  I think I even slipped in a promo for clover, to no one’s surprise.

Next up is a column tackling a much more controversial subject: are turf grasses inherently bad, even if they’re cared for using these environmentally correct techniques? And what alternatives really work?  I’m hearing totally contradictory statements by seemingly unbiased, well-informed sources - so I’m loving it!!  I’ll let you know my take on the subject as soon as I have one.

FOR MY OWN LAWN I do have a position and a plan:  I’ve reduced the size considerably but will keep what’s left for utilitarian reasons - like walking, hauling a garden hose in every direction, and occasionally mowing.  And I’m keeping my lawn because - don’t let anybody fool you - most alternatives are more maintenance than the lawn itself!  Yes, as heretical as it sounds, ask people who’ve gone lawnless how much less maintenance they have now and they’ll laugh.  Seriously.  That’s because it’s really the traditional, perfect lawns that are so much work, not the profoundly imperfect kind of lawn I have.  And most borders, god love ‘em, are a lot of work.

And here’s the other part of my plan: to gradually transform the lawn I have left into a healthy patch of biodiversity, to include turf grass, clover, attractive weeds like violets, and anything else I can find that might work.  So what do you suggest?  Remember it can’t be so tall that a garden hose would catch on it, and it has to be drought-tolerant, walkable and mowable.  Perhaps a touch of thyme?

The old-fashioned idiom to be "in clover" means living a carefree life of ease, comfort and prosperity."  Okay, count me in.  And everyone knows that clover of the four-leaf variety is good luck.

But we’re gardeners here, so what about planting the stuff in our lawns?  Here’s what Less Lawn has to say about it:

"Clover is often planted by gardeners as a soil conditioner. It grows quickly and easily, chokes out weeds and is easily ‘turned in’ to the beds when planting time draws near. The deep root system reduces soil compaction. Clover is also a nitrogen-fixing plant, which   enriches the soil with natural fertilizer.  Clover also works well, however, as a replacement for turf - consider the benefits: 
Low Maintenance  - Clover needs little to no watering or mowing.
No Fertilizers - Chemical fertilizers are not needed to grow clover.
Color - Clover stays green even in the driest part of summer.
Inexpensive  - It costs about $4 to cover 4000 sq. ft. of turf area.
Comfortable  - Easy to walk through or play on, although not as durable as grass."

Did you catch the bit about clover being a "nitrogen-fixing" plant?  Now I’m no botanist, as Readers here have surely noticed, so I looked it up for you and it goes like this.  Bacteria that live in nodules on the roots of clover convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into a form that’s usable by plants.  There, that’s as technical as you’ll ever get from me.  Cool stuff, though.

And if you care about biodiversity (and who doesn’t?), clover also supports more wildlife by providing nectar for those pollinating bees we all love and even attracts small, non-stinging but aphid-eating wasps.

So what’s not to love?  I’ll concede that the romance of running barefoot across fields of flowering clover is sometimes ruined by the screams and curses of the newly bee-stung.  But isn’t that why God created gardening clogs and TEVA sandels?

Here’s another of Takoma’s lawnless frontyards, one of my favorites.  The berm is brimming with rock garden plants of all sorts and even a petunia-filled treasure chest.  The owner/gardener, a local artist and art teacher, has an infectious sense of fun.

And speaking of fun, I promised you this shot of the beloved cow sculpture in the garden of local landscape designer Margaret Atwell.  You can’t tell from the photo, but it’s nearly life-size and adds the right touch to the pastoral feeling of her backyard.

Here’s a delicious preview of tomorrow’s  house and garden tour here in town; I couldn’t wait till these lovely gardens are crawling with tour-goers in bright sun.  You all expect better than that and I’m just trying to please.

First up is a really cool example of house and garden colors working together.  And this professional landscape designer’s front garden is jam-packed with small trees, shrubs, and perennials.  Best I recall, her back garden holds a 6-foot cow sculpture, which you’d better believe I’ll be burning up the pixels over tomorrow on the tour.

The garden next door uses plants and color in the same way, and has this amazing bottle tree as a focal point.  I’m told this is a Southern tradition but it must be farther south than my native Central Virginia because it’s the first I’ve ever seen.  Here’s another one courtesy of the Worldwideweb.

And a tour through the Town of Takoma wouldn’t be complete without this popular political message, which preaches to the choir here but that’s okay; it’s nice to see.  It says "Don’t Legislate Discrimination" and refers to laws that prohibit gay marriage.