Lawn Culture: A Call for Transformation

An example of lawn space being used as a garden

Hello lovelies! Today I'm going to talk about something a little unconventional that I'm really passionate about, and that is the need for typical North American lawn culture to be transformed to help the environment, and hopefully help people understand that our culture has a huge influence over nature, and we can help keep our planet healthy!

Now, most of you are probably thinking "What in the hell is lawn culture supposed to mean?" But it really does mean exactly what you would imagine it to be. The cultural emphasis of using land to have, well, lawns. It's the idea that landscape, particularly in the front area of the house, is primarily for beauty and even as a symbol of wealth or status. This idea is typically backed by homeowners associations, who enforce strict guidelines about how the front lawn of a home should appear. According to americanforrests.org, the US alone has planted over 40 million aces in lawns. Which makes sense when you take into consideration that the stereotypical "American Dream House" includes a vast front yard of perfectly manicured, weed free green grass sprawling forward from the home. But where did this practice come from?

Lawns actually began as a trend back in the French monarchy as a status symbol. What the wealthy were saying is that they had so many disposable resources that they had land to use for absolutely nothing productive except for the fact that it looks pretty. It was a goal to work toward to be able to have a lawn as an ornamental garden to show how well you're doing, rather than the need for a "kitchen garden". Lawns started becoming popular in the US in the 1800's when people who visited Europe and saw the lawns there, returned wanting to recreate what they had seen. Grasses that were native to our land weren't suitable for maintaining manicured lawns, so the USDA researched and found grass combinations and pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers to help protect and nourish the blend of grasses they created to fill the demand to keep alive the grasses that weren't designed to grow in our climate.

But lawn culture is problematic. 

First and foremost, the chemicals people use on their lawns to keep them well groomed harmful to the environment. The runoff of these chemicals gets into the ground water, and our streams, rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. These cause algae blooms that take oxygen from the water and are harmful to the animals that live there. Fish can also ingest these chemicals that will cause them to become ill, and then other animals, including humans, will eat these diseased fish. When people maintain their lawns, they often damage the trunks of trees and other small shrubs. When the bark is split, it opens the tree to become infested by insects or bacteria. This will eventually cause structural problems for the plant. When designing their lawns and landscaping, people often introduce invasive, non native species of plants that are harmful to the environment around them. We are greatly reducing the level of biodiversity in a way that is both superficial and wasteful. 

Why should you care that, by participating in lawn culture, you are helping to reduce the biodiversity in our environment?

Because a loss of biodiversity is a clear and certain sign that we are causing our life support system, Mother Earth, to fail around us. These ecosystems are what support us. They're what determine the carrying capacity of the area around us. These ecosystems are what generate oxygen, what create topsoil so we can plant and harvest food to nourish ourselves, and help pollinate these crops we are harvesting. Nature is what works to recycle all of the trash we place into landfills and tries to protect us from disaster like floods. These ecosystems we're destroying are the only things that are going to keep us alive and they're essential to our survival, and this directly affects each and every one of us.

But it isn't too late.

We can come together and combat the traditional lawn culture. Instead of landscaping with aesthetics as our goal, we can consider the function of our landscapes too! Instead of the manicured green lawn, we can have an abundance of native trees, grasses and shrubs that can be both beautiful and serve a purpose! We can make an effort to plant more native plants and LOTS of them. We can use vegetable gardens and trellises and pot gardens to plant things that are good for the creatures that live in our area, especially the bees! If you're willing to donate some of your time back to the Earth, you could plant lovely gardens and grow food or beautiful native flowers. Even if you don't intend to eat all of the food you grow, you could easily donate it! Allow people to take some of what you've grown. It'll be a great way to make friends with the neighbors, and will be a nice supply of fresh produce to the local food banks. If you're not the type with a green thumb, you could start with one or two potted plants that are good for insects in your area (because insects are typically great for transferring energy made by plants throughout the food chain) and easy to care for! If you do decide to grow food, and don't have the freezer space to reap all that you sow, there is a website for Urban Farming where you can register your garden and people that are in need, have unhealthy diets, have been laid off, or just other farmers who want to try out what you've grown can come and pick your food, and you can do the same to theirs. If you don't have the time to maintain a garden, you could simply just plant more native plants into the earth in your lawn! They're native so they won't require as much maintenance,and they're good for the environment...It's a win-win situation. Even modest increases in the amount of native plants in an area can greatly impact the health of the environment, and we all have the power to help! I understand that not everyone has the time to take care of a full fledged garden, but everyone has the ability to replace their lawn with native plants, and to take care of at least one potted plant. Or at the very least, if unwilling to make a change to their lawn, at least be careful to use organic fertilizers to help reduce the impact of the chemicals. Together, we can make a difference for Mother Earth.