Roll Gardening & Green
“A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.”
by Luanne Panarotti

“A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.”
Michael Pollan

I startle awake, beads of cold sweat already forming on my brow.
I lay stock still, barely breathing; even the birds and insects seem to have hushed. Then through the eerie silence, comes the syncopated drone of rotors, growing louder and steadily nearer. They are soon joined by the deep growl of larger machines cutting merciless swaths through the surrounding landscape. Before long, the deafening roar surrounds me on all sides.

Oh good—my lawn service has arrived.
We Americans have a strange, rather codependent relationship with our lawns. Once a luxury for the rich who could afford groundskeepers to maintain them, private lawns became practical for the average American after the industrial revolution. Today, these green expanses are at the center of a six billion dollar industry. And, in pursuit of their verdancy, we apply in excess of 50 million pounds of toxic chemicals each year, allowing our children to run barefoot through carcinogens and our pets to roll around in neurotoxins. Our beloved “green” carpet is often anything but.

So how do we achieve a more sustainable yard, in this land in love with lawn?

REDUCE! Realistically assess how much lawn you need, thinking about how you use and enjoy your yard. Do you need just enough for a hammock, or your barbecue and picnic table? Enough for a series of cartwheels, or a game of bocce? Determine the lawn requirements for your lifestyle—and then, get rid of the rest.

If you’re landscaping a new construction, you can start off right, designing around a smaller lawn. If yours is an established landscape, begin reclaiming sections for higher purposes. Look out your window at your current lawn and picture instead a small grove of flowering trees adorning one corner, or a tumble of colorful wildflowers filling a hollow between driveway and woodland edge. Savor the idea of a strawberry patch, or perhaps a collection of high bush blueberries.

Or, imagine a sea of undulating ornamental grasses, framed by your picture window. Low–maintenance and deer resistant, ornamental grasses add graceful motion, seasonal color and winter interest to your yard. Their varied flowers and seed pods provide beautiful textural detail, from the ethereal cloud of Panicum virgatum (Switch Grass) to the explosive display of Miscanthus sinensis (Japanese Silver Grass).

All of these scenarios offer more aesthetic appeal than a lawn ever could, while also providing food and cover for birds, butterflies, honeybees and other welcome visitors.

REDEFINE! What exactly is a “lawn?” It needn’t be a Kentucky bluegrass monoculture that goes dormant during the hot, dry summer. Consider seed blends that offer the best characteristics of a palette of turf plants, such as drought–tolerant fescue grasses combined with fast–spreading ryegrass and clover that will naturally enrich the soil with nitrogen. Or, investigate “no–mow” mixes of assorted mounding fescues.

“Steppable” groundcovers are another viable lawn alternative. These low–growing, spreading perennials can withstand a certain amount of foot traffic, and are virtually maintenance–free once established. Consider Leptinella x. Platts Black (Black Brass Buttons), whose fern–like foliage in bronze/black forms a soft mat for bare soles, or Potentilla reptans (Plenifora) with double yellow flowers offset by dark green leaves. And, who couldn’t use some extra thyme? A number of varieties work well as walkable groundcovers, such as Thymus citriodorus (Archer’s Gold), with bright gold foliage punctuated by light lavender–pink flowers in late summer. Thymus serpyllum (Magic Carpet) has deep green foliage that tightly grips the earth, and releases a fresh lemon scent when crushed by footfall.

REFORM! Reconsider the way you maintain your remaining lawn. The EPA estimates that 5% of the nation’s air pollution comes from the use of traditional, gas–powered lawn mowers. If you’ve pared back your lawn enough, you may be able to mow it yourself with a manual reel mower. No fuel smell, no hot motor, no deafening din—just the “clickety–clack” of the blades and you, burning 400 calories an hour while breathing in the fragrance of fresh–cut greens.

Whatever the mower, make sure that the blades are kept sharp, and set to a height that removes only the top 1/3 of the grass. Leaving the plants slightly longer above the ground encourages an equivalent growth in the roots, enabling the plants to plumb further into the soil for moisture during times of drought.

It’s estimated that 30% of water usage on the East Coast is dedicated to the upkeep of lawns. If you must, water deeply, but not often. This conserves a precious resource while encouraging root growth and discouraging thatch.

Are you and your lawn on a 4–step program? Break the cycle of chemical dependency and explore organic alternatives to conventional fertilizers and pesticides. Return grass clippings, spread a thin layer of mulch, or use a blended organic fertilizer. Add a microbial soil conditioner to inoculate your soil with beneficial microbes which process organic matter to make it usable by the plants, aid in nutrient absorption and help to minimize nutrient leaching. Corn gluten is a good source of slow–release nitrogen, and also acts as a natural pre–emergent weed suppressor. Remove weeds manually if possible, and use only organic weed killer to spot–treat your lawn. Better yet, learn to live with a few weeds. There are also effective organic treatments for insect pests, such as beneficial nematodes or milky spore to rid your lawn of grubs, including the larvae of Japanese beetles.

Most importantly, RELAX! It’s not easy to make a lifestyle change; but once you “go organic” with your lawn, the grass will always be “greener”…on your side.

To learn more about organic lawn care and natural landscaping, visit these websites: www.lesslawn.com, www.eartheasy.com; or check out these books: Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards by Sara B. Stein; Houghton Mifflin Company, and The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey; Storey Publishing.