Lawn Problems: Is the Lawn Passé?

Next to invasive plants , lawn have become the most hated matter in horticulture . The evidence ordinarily offered against lawns attain sense : They take up too much water , fertilizer , pesticide , herbicides , and fungicides , all things we need to use as piffling of as possible if we want to keep the major planet healthy .

Not everybody needs a lawn . Susan Harris does n’t , and in her clause , “ When You ’ve Grown Beyond Your Grass ” ( okay horticulture # 132 , March / April 2010 ) , she shows you what she has planted rather . Her options are safe — to users and the environment — and downcast maintenance : perfect choices for those who do n’t want grass .

Susan acknowledges that lawn have their piazza — like at my house . I have a lawn and would not be without it . Where would my kids play ? Gravel and mulch are not suitable for soccer or rag . Grass is the perfect place for my wife to open out a blanket to eat grapes and Popsicles with the tike while they keep an eye on me struggle with some horticulture task ( which often results in much giggling on their part ) .

The only water my lawn gets is provided by the swarm . The only eating it gets is if I spill compost intended for my garden plant life ( this happens a lot ) . My lawn never gets herbicides , pesticides , or fungicides — mainly because I do n’t handle whether weeds , spoilt bugs , or malign fungi are present . Because the function of my lawn is to be walk on , run on , fallen on , or sat on , I do n’t give it much idea .

I do have a lawn mower , however , which causes air pollution . But my lawn commonly only gets mow when it is up to my ankles . So is my lawn part of the trouble ? A little ( thanks to the mower ) , but it is n’t the material problem . It is up to me how many resources and chemical my lawn call for . So , perhaps , the true job is with the people who keep up lawns in a fashion that is unhealthy for the environment and the expectations we put on them ( lawn and their maintainers ) . If most people did n’t remember that only a lawn on which Tiger Woods could sink a 40 - foot - retentive putt was acceptable , then we might not have this obsession that results in constant mowing and using all that water and those herbicides and pesticides .

I ’m not a golfer , and I do n’t put much blood line in keeping up with the Joneses ( which , I imagine , bothers them ) . But I ’m remind of why I have my lawn whenever I see my kids operate — and necessarily falling — all over the place . I will have to work on find an alternative to my gas mower — sheep , perhaps . But I am well-chosen know that my lawn is dependable for my kids to act on and allows me clip to play , too .

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