Since the vast majority of St. Mike’s students hail from wealthy, suburban New England, most of us have probably grown up with lawns. These plots of perfectly-manicured grass are such an ordinary part of everyday suburban life that we often don’t give them any thought, yet their modern popularity is a bizarre development in American culture. Originally an agricultural staple imported from Europe for colonial farmers, the turf grass that surrounds our houses today quickly became a staple of landscape design in the United States. Americans plant green grass and shrubs as a class indicator, to show that they had the money and leisure time to sculpt their land. Wealthier folks might even hire somebody else to take care of their lawns. This has made turf grass the most widely grown crop in the United States, and its neatly trimmed plots line suburban neighborhoods like blocks on graphing paper.
As attractive as they may be, the expansion of turf grass has outrageous environmental consequences. American lawns consume nearly three trillion gallons of water every year, which makes up anywhere from 30-60% of urban freshwater. This is a devastating waste of water, especially in an age where climate change is causing an increasing number of droughts across the country. Even worse, the nearly 70 million pounds of pesticides that Americans spray on their lawns every year–ten times the amount that the farmers typically use on their crops–is also responsible for wide-scale water pollution (Polycarpou; Talbot). Rainwater that isn’t immediately wasted on watering lawns runs off from the grass and carries pesticides into local bodies of water. Not only can these chemicals poison and kill local aquatic species, but they’re also harmful to the humans that drink and swim in this water.
Beyond the issue of pollution, turf grass is also the number one threat to America’s natural biodiversity (Hostetler, Main). Planting lawns requires uprooting arrays of native plants that provide food and shelter for the animals and insects that live right in our backyards. And many of the decorative flowers and shrubs that we plant in their place are usually invasive species, which will spread rapidly and take up space and nutrients that native plant species need to survive. And when our pesticides aren’t running off into local bodies of water, they’ll often kill local pollinators, like bees and butterflies, along with any other animals who eat the treated plants in our backyards. This destruction of biodiversity is dangerous to bees, birds, and humans alike; we need native plants and animals to pollinate our crops and regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which are the primary force behind our planet’s rapidly increasing temperatures. In order to combat climate change and ensure a healthy planet for future generations, we must reimagine our relationships to our yards.
There are many ways to create a beautiful, sustainable yard without harming your local ecosystem. The simplest thing you can do is to plant native grasses, flowers, and shrubs in your space. Appreciate the beauty that your environment has to offer, all while opening up your space to local wildlife. In fact, this is exactly how Minnesota is working to address the state’s declining bee populations. A new government program called “Lawns to Legumes” is paying Minnesotans to grow native, bee-friendly plants in their yards in order to support local bee populations. The program created multiple guides to creating a “pollinator’s habitat” which includes different lists of native flowers and shrubs to plant depending on what part of the state residents live in and how much sunshine or rain their yards get. On the other hand, many homeowners in dry, arid climates are ditching their lawns for xeriscaping, which focuses on cultivating drought-resistant plants like succulents and cacti. This has proven to cut back drastically on water waste, with one study reporting a 30% decrease in yearly household water use amongst Las Vegas homes that adopted xeriscaping (Bennett et. al).
A much easier, although less exciting, way to create a more sustainable lawn is by ditching the lawn mower and letting your yard bloom. This has been coined the “No-Mow” movement, and it’s gained a lot of traction in rural America as homeowners yearn to connect with the vibrant ecosystems that thrive right outside of their doors. An Ohio resident, Sarah Baker, wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune about her decision to stop mowing her yard, which allowed for diverse native flora to spring up all around her home. She was amazed to see that the garden that she had once worked so diligently to rid of pests became its own self-regulating ecosystem.
Never before have I had so few pests in my vegetable garden thanks to my yard’s newfound biodiversity, including predators that keep crop-damaging bugs in check. When you stop mowing, you get it; you not only see first-hand all the nature that we have lost start to come back, you get to interact with it.
Sarah’s article is a wonderful example of how rewarding it can be to relinquish some control over your space and watch it flourish. She occasionally had to trim down the flora and weed out invasive plants, but she has otherwise enjoyed watching her yard flourish.
Lawn culture is deeply ingrained in the American conscience as a symbol of wealth and human “control” over one’s environment. Letting go of this cultural norm can be challenging, but it is the only way that the United States will effectively battle the climate crisis, which is a direct result of overconsumption of scarce environmental resources by wealthy nations such as the United States. While much of the responsibility for overconsumption lies in corporate hands (I’m looking at you, ExxonMobile), there’s no denying that lawns are an extension of this issue. We waste so much water, soil, and space keeping up with our plots of grass. For what? The chance to show off to our neighbors? To feel like we have control over something? Since I haven’t heard any better reasons for maintaining a lawn, I encourage all of you who own any green space to quit mowing it and let it run wild. Plant some local flower species, and welcome wildlife to roam. The innumerable species of plants and animals that roam all around us are stunning, and we should embrace their beauty. If we can abandon our perfect lawns and allow a healthier, more vibrant ecosystem to flourish in our backyards, then we will be one step closer to combatting the human greed that is destroying our planet.
Sources:
Baker, Sarah. “My Town Calls My Lawn ‘a Nuisance.’ But I Still Refuse to Mow It.” Chicago
Tribune, 4 Aug. 2015.
D’Costa, Krystal. “The American Obsession with Lawns.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 3 May 2017, blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-american-obsession-with-lawns/.
Hostetler, Mark E, and Martin B Main. “Native Landscaping vs. Exotic Landscaping: What Should We Recommend?” Journal of Extension, wec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/gc/harmony/landscaping/nativeandexotic.htm.
Polycarpou, Lakis. “The Problem of Lawns.” State of the Planet, Earth Institute, Columbia University, 4 June 2010, blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/06/04/the-problem-of-lawns/.
Sovocool, Kent A, et al. “An in‐Depth Investigation of Xeriscape as a Water Conservation Measure.” Journal AWWA, vol. 98, no. 2, 1 Jan. 2006, doi:10.1002/j.1551-8833.2006.tb07590.x.
Talbot, Mary. “More Sustainable (and Beautiful) Alternatives to a Grass Lawn.” Natural Resources Defense Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, 30 Sept. 2016, www.nrdc.org/stories/more-sustainable-and-beautiful-alternatives-grass-l…