Lawns: love 'em or leave 'em

I want to talk about something that I think is very controversial. It is a topic that spans a multitude of social orders and questions the varying levels of peoples concern and care for the environment; Lawns. What does this word mean to you? Do you have a standard of what you find to be acceptable in a lawn? Do you care about lawns at all? How much energy, time and money have you invested in a lawn, just to have to do it all over again? And for what? How do you use your lawn? How often and why?

The Pond at the Southwest Greenway Park on Manor Rd. Austin, TX

You see I bring up all of these questions to start a conversation about how people view lawns. The Dictionary describes it as “an area of short, mown grass in a yard, garden, or park.” Wikipedia says “a lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes.” I love how people have collectively refined the description of a lawn on Wikipedia… It made mentioned of plants other then just the traditional answer of it being grass. Many peoples’ first word to describe a lawn is grass. More often then not the lawn outside has so much more than just grass growing in it.

Depending on the area of the world that you live in there may be both hot and cold season perennials and annual plants growing in your lawn. You may be surprised to learn that some of these plants may have more attributes than just being green than you realize. You see, plants have been evolving along side humans for a very long time. They all have a purpose or a mission of their own accord.

My mission is to help people think of the lawn differently. Most people are stuck in the cycle of grow, mow, water, herbicide, fertilize, grow and on and on. Using precious resources and valuable dollars and for what? Why do be care that the area in front of your property is green and low? The history behind it shows us that having a large lush green lawn was a status symbol, and it still is. If you can afford to spend the time and money on your lawn then you must have an abundance of expendable resources. My biggest problem with this isn’t that people are spending money and using resources its that they are often leaving out the courtesy of caring for a very important aspect of this whole equation, Nature.

Texas Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa.

How do the things we do to our lawns affect the very soil it sits on top of, or the watershed down stream? What about the people, pets and wild animals that come across it? One of my major pet peeves with our society is our blind consumerism. Our willingness to accept something as is without ever questioning why we do it, who decided it should be this way, or what could we do to make it happen differently that benefits people and the planet.

I honestly believe I was brought to this earth to help make a difference. To open peoples eyes to things that we take for granted and the atrocities that our society commits against our very home. The acceptance of the status quo has never felt right to me. I know that we can do better as a people. I know that if others are thinking about these issues then I am not alone in this fight.

I understand why we can all agree to disagree on politics and religion but what I don’t understand is why we don’t see eye to eye on taking responsibility for our planet? This note is about lawns, but it's also so much more than that. What about how we deal with waste? My goal is to encourage people to think about how everything has an action and a reaction, a cause and effect that ripples out from itself. This process doesn’t just end at the edge of your property, it is off gassed into the atmosphere, it is thrown in bags and left at the curb, it all goes somewhere. Familiarize yourself with the processes happening around you. How do the actions that each of us take on a daily basis effect the world on a grander scale? What are you doing or what could you be doing to offset this? What is your carbon footprint, how much does your existence contribute to the destruction or rehabilitation of this planet and society?

I would love to write more on this topic, its big, its heavy and its loaded with opportunity for change. What has this brought up for you? How can I help? Perhaps you’d like to hear about grass alternatives, more about native plants and creating a habitat for beneficial insects or maybe its the culture surrounding lawns that intrigues you? Leave a comment below or send me a message about your specific situation and I’d be more than happy to take a look and let you know what I think.

Hanging out in a field of Pink Evening Primrose, Oenothera speciosa. Austin, TX