Lawn Care/Environmental Impacts

The Ideal: Eden in Your Back Yard

The Challenge: U.S. Lawn Care Environmental Facts

The Opportunity: Evolution and Revolution in Your Back Yard

Evolution: Making the Familiar Lawn Work Better

Revolution: Replacing All or part of Conventional Lawn Management

The Ideal: Eden in Your Back Yard

Image Source: Texas A&M Turfgrass Program

The dream of beautiful gardens and landscapes for our lives is as old as mankind. The ancient Hebrews dreamed of a time when every man would be able to sit under his own vine or fig tree. The idea of the green lawn in western civilization has its roots in English and French landscape architecture as seen in great houses and chateaus of the 17^th through 18^th centuries, and the traditional idea of the village commons.

Translation of these ideas from the great houses and village greens of Europe to the single-family homes of the Americas and Australia has not always been easy. The lawn that would never need watering in the moist climate of Britain could require large amounts of watering in west Texas, much less Arizona. The clover that provided natural fertilization proved vulnerable to the most common weed killers. The sheep that safely grazed on baronial meadows were replaced by millions of 2-cycle gasoline mowers, each one polluting more than a dozen automobiles.

The Challenge: U.S. Lawn Care Environmental Facts

The dream of the green lawn and the divergent reality of climate and economy in much of the developed world have led to the current situation, as described in Redesigning the American Lawn by F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori, Gordon T. Geballe, Yale University Press, 1993.

• 20 million acres are planted in residential lawns.
• $25 billion is spent for the lawn care industry.
• 30 to 60 per cent of all urban fresh water is used for watering lawns. More than half this amount is wasted, because of inappropriate timing or dosage. Nearly all the water used could be save by appropriate use of native landscaping that does not require any watering beyond natural rainfall.
• $5.25 billion is spent on fossil-fuel-derived fertilizer for U.S. lawns. The majority of this fertilizer is wasted because of improper timing or dosage and becomes a source of pollution to surface or ground water. Most of this expense and pollution could be eliminate by proper timing, proper dosage, or intelligent use of compost and other organic fertilizers.
• A typical power lawnmower pollutes as much in one hour as driving an automobile for 20 miles. This can be greatly reduced by using 4-stroke gas lawn mowers or electric mowers. Where feasible, it can be totally eliminated by using a hand-powered reel mower.
• 60 to 70 thousand severe accidents, some fatal, result from lawnmower use, as well as significant damage to human hearing.
• 580 million gallons of gasoline are used for lawnmowers. Much of this goes to pollute the air by evaporation, or to harm vegetation and surface or ground water by spillage.
• 67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are used each year on lawns in the United States. Much of this is wasted, and ends up contaminating surface or ground water. Pesticide use can be drastically reduced through the intelligent use of Integrated Pest Management.
• $700 million is spent for the pesticides used on U.S. lawns. Much of this could be saved through intelligent use of Integrated Pest Management.

The Opportunity: Evolution and Revolution in Your Back Yard

These drastic impacts can be reduced or eliminate in either of two ways: by Evolution or Revolution.

Evolution

Image Source: Texas A&M Turfgrass Program

• Lawn mowers do not have to be gross sources of air pollution: hand, electric or four-stroke gasoline operation can all work significant improvements.
• Lawn watering can be made far more efficient, simply by choosing the right time and duration of watering. Bad watering can actually make things worse, encouraging shallow rooting and vulnerability to competing plants ("weeds").
• Fertilizer can be applied at the most effective time, in appropriate amounts. It need not be wasted on pavement. A soil test can allow very accurate assessment of your real needs.
• Pesticides and Herbicides can be applied at recommended strengths at recommended times. For modest problems, topical application may be sufficient.
• A robust well-cultivated lawn is itself most resistant to weeds and pests

A large proportion of current problems represent not simply the choice of a familiar green lawn, but general ignorance of the proper way to use conventional resources to build and maintain it.

Revolution

Image Source: Texas A&M Turfgrass Program

• Alternative Planting: Choosing turfgrass varieties that are particularly drought resistant, disease resistant, light feeders or slow growers requiring little mowing.
• Companion Planting: Use of supplementary plantings such as clover to meet the needs of turfgrass.
• Native Landscaping: Filling your lawn or garden with those species that are native to your area. This may include or be combined with Xeriscaping: the planting of species that require little or no supplemental water, and the replacement of lawns altogether by various ground covers.
• Biological Pest Control: Use of natural predators, diseases, etc., to control insects or weeds

Image Source: Texas A&M Turfgrass Program

This path does not entirely eliminate planning or work. When mishandled it can go spectacularly wrong and become indistinguishable from outright neglect. This is one reason why there may be strong social and even legal pressure to maintain a conventional lawn.

You may wish to mix and match elements of the two paths. You may wish to maintain a small "test patch" of clover or a native landscape subarea. This is a way to acquire valuable experience and establish your credibility with local officials.

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