Lawns

I’m not totally all about lawns. Even though I do get that a lot of people like them for those times they want to be outside playing with their children or pets. And I get that but even then, there are several alternatives. Lawns in general are huge polluters, both polluting the nearby waterways as well as the very air we breathe. In a 2005 study by Cristina Milesi at NASA, they discovered that the United States is covered in 63,000 square miles of lawns. Which is a little larger than the entire state of Georgia.

Lawn care varies widely depending on you region and how hard you have to try to keep your lawn looking good, and even what your definition of “looking good” means to you. Some people will never irrigate or spread chemicals on their lawns, they are content to mow just enough to keep from getting a city citation. Others are nearly militant about keeping their lawn watered, fed, cut, and disease and weed free. No matter where you are on this spectrum, I would bet that if you have a lawn, you are at least mowing it. Lawnmowers are notorious polluters. Most are gas powered, and the ones that are, emit hydrocarbons, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, and a lot of particulate matter, all very concentrated.

If you’re like a lot of people that have lawns, you’ll also do at least one of the following, if not a combination or all.

Regular applications of insecticides

Healthy ecosystems, including healthy lawns, have some level of insects. These insecticides don’t discriminate between the good insects and the bad ones, instead, they kill anything that is affected by that specific mode of action. For example, a category of insecticides are Carbamates. This variety of insecticide affects the central nervous system of insects, but it also affects the central nervous system of other species as well. Which it is recommended to not use next to any water ways, because it is also toxic to fish. Everytime it rains, this gets washed into our creeks and eventually larger streams and rivers that support fish populations, and the fish are affected as a result. They also have a tendency to harm nearby bee populations. Most of North America’s bee species raise their young underground. If you’re  spraying these on your lawn to try to get rid of insects, well, you might also kill your bees.

Applications of fungicides

I actually used to work in a mycology and soil ecology lab. There are several beneficial species of soil fungi. If the beneficial fungi isn’t directly benefitting the plants like mycorrhizae does, it helps to digest organic matter in the soil and turn it back into nutrients. Also, did you know that the more you lawn looks perfect, the more likely you are to have fungal problems? Think about the requirements for most fungi to grow. Most fungi needs damp, dark spaces. What does a “perfect” lawn have? It will most likely be irrigated, and it will most likely have some sort of thatch layer because you’re over seeding it, and then over feeding it, and there isn’t anywhere for that thatch layer to go, so it just sits there wet. Perfect for growing moldy grasses. In more natural lawnscapes, ones that you mess around with less, there’s no need for any of this, so your lawn is going to be far less moldy.  

Over seeding

Speaking of over seeding, this creates a whole host of problems as well. The idea with over seeding is that there will never be thin patches of grasses (leading to that thick thatch layer I just talked about). While this sounds nice, and in theory it is, what that also does is create more inputs that are needed. More inputs mean more unnecessary work for you, and more fertilizers, increased need for irrigation. It’s starting to sound like a vicious cycle, isn’t it?

Regular applications of fertilizers

I think I took a several classes in college where we mostly talked about fertilizers and overfertilizing. In fact, that’s pretty much all we talked about in Plant Nutrients. Over fertilization, has been a huge and well documented reason for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, eutrophication in lakes and rivers, and other serious ecological issues. I think part of the reason we over fertilize so much is because we typically use one of two schools of thought when it comes to feeding our plants. Whether that be crops, or lawns, or just your pretty plants in your landscaped beds outside your house.

1. Sufficiency- the benefits of this are mostly going to be maximize economic efficiency for every dollar used on fertilizer.

2. Build and maintain- which seeks to minimize risk by keeping fertilizer levels lower to prevent any yield loss.

Because believe it or not, you can over fertilize any plant, ask me how I know.

Anyway, more on what I think of each school of thought here, and more on how to read a soil test here.

Actions

So what can you do as a land owner? Well for one, you can stop using pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Anything with -cide. When you stop these, some outbreaks may initially occur, but not to worry. It will be a short term problem, other plants will take over, beneficial insects will come back to their rightful place, and even the beneficial fungi with the amazing mycorrhizae will come back given time. I know I can hear some people asking “but what if my area doesn’t support grass that well?” the short answer is to stop growing it. If you live in an arid or semi arid climate, so somewhere that gets less than 20 cm on rain per year, you are highly unlikely to grow a lawn sustainably. Channel your inner Elsa and LET IT GO, LET IT GO! If this is you, you’re going to want to look into xeriscaping (ZER-uh SCAP-ing).

Do you have a pest problem and it really isn’t beneficial bugs, its something that’s actively eating your lawn or other plants? The first step of course is identifying the type of invader you have, and the second step is encouraging beneficial insects, birds, bats, frogs, etc that will help combat the invader insect.

Please do something about your irrigation! The most inefficient way you can possibly water your lawn is those sprinklers that spray water into your lawn, the sidewalk, the road, the air, your dog, and anyone else who walks by whole they are going. And yet that’s how most people water their lawn. If you really feel you must water lawn, may I suggest installing some drip irrigation lines? Its extremely efficient compared to spraying water in the air, for most of it to evaporate in the hot summer heat.  But again, if you can’t grow grass without needing irrigation, please reconsider a grass lawn. There are several options available, and most likely someone in your area who does xeriscaping that can help you achieve a grass free, drought tolerant yard.