Here’s an update after a whirlwind week of launching the Lawn Reform Coalition with my 8 co-conspirators, complete with much blogging, status-updating, press-release-pushing and lobbying of friends. It’s filling a small void in our website – what the heck we recommend by way of taking care of lawns as we know them. Sure, books can be written about lawn care, but everyone’s busy so let’s just cut to the chase in a few bullet points. Lots more resources on all these subjects are listed here.
Thanks to everyone for the links and miscellaneous suggestions you’ve sent us about the campaign and the website, and keep ‘em coming. On the subject of lawn care, we’re looking for links to articles and websites that recommend the following basic practices because too much information, especially if it contradicts itself, isn’t much help to the reader.
Weigh In
So what do you think of these? What would you add, delete, amend, or throw a shoe at? Let us know in a comment or directly to me.
Fertilizers
- We recommend against using synthetic fertilizers because they kill the soil and are far more likely to run off and pollute our waterways.
- Turfgrasses can receive all the fertilizer they need from a combination of: leaving grass clippings on the lawn, adding clover, and applying a layer of compost. Also, any of those can be used in combination with a slow-acting, organic fertilizer product, applied in the fall only.
- Spring feeding? Only if it’s organic and if there’s a particular need; e.g., to restore a neglected lawn. Once it’s healthy, spring feeding shouldn’t be needed.
Pesticides
- We recommend against using insecticides and fungicides as a group, especially the synthetic ones, because of multiple environmental problems with their use. We are also concerned about their toxicity for humans and pets, not only via direct exposure but as they infiltrate into our drinking water.
Weeds
- The best way to keep weeds down in a lawn is to have a thick, healthy lawn by overseeding in the fall, and by fertilizing as outlined above.
- For preventing broadleaf weeds we like corn gluten applied in late winter when the forsythias bloom. In the recommended dose, it also provides significant nitrogen.
- We recommend against synthetic weedkillers for the lawn, especially the ones in the common weed-and-feed products.
- And two plants considered weeds for decades are making a comeback – and for good reason. Clover is a nitrogen-fixing natural fertilizer and great for the pollinators. Dandelions are lovely in bloom and edible, too.
Water
- We disagree with the old, water-wasting advice to give lawns an inch of water every week. Rather, lawns should be allowed to go dormant in the summer and in the winter. Healthy turfgrass grown naturally is pretty, though in a different way than the drug-addicted green perfection we’re told to emulate.
- We recommend more drought-tolerant species of turfgrass, where possible. They include Buffalograss, mixes of fine fescues, Bahia grass in parts of Florida, sedges in wooded areas, and so on – whatever is best for your region.
- And if you irrigate, use an efficient system. Install a smart controller that automatically adjusts irrigation schedules based on environmental factors and replace traditional spray heads with matched precipitation, low infiltration heads such as MP Rotators.
Mowing, Blowing and Discarding
- We agree with the universal recommendation that lawns be mowed high, to at least 3".
- Gas-powered mowers and blowers are the worst offenders in the categories of air pollution, noise pollution and, obviously, the use of a fossil fuel. Electric mowers are far preferable, and push mowers are everyone’s ideal.
- Grass clippings are best left on the lawn to provide nitrogen, not sent to the dump.
Less Lawn
- Here’s where we put in a plug for reducing or eliminating turfgrasses when they’re not needed for their toughness. "Lawns" could be composed of more sustainable groundcovers, or converted to something totally different - ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, shrubs, small trees, pervious patios, edibles, even a small meadow.
Photo by Digimist.
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I solved my mowing, fertilizer and weed control with the purchase of 2 small goats. I use roof run of water that I catch in six 55 gallon barrels for garden watering. Of course not everyone wants a goat in their back yard. Grinning.
I agree with you. We put out more fertilizers and pesticides on lawns than farmers do. It is not needed to produce beautiful grass. Thank you for telling people of a better way.
On some of the bullets, it be helpful to add links. For example, you mentioned some alternative grasses. Maybe a link to High Country Gardens or similar. I’m not affiliated with HCG at all, but I do get their catalogs
I’m in the process of getting away from synthetics on my lawn and finding one of the roadblocks being product availability or accessibility.
Thanks for spreading the word. I now look forward to see the clover bloom and the bees buzz my lawn. It’s nice to have them back.
We use a Cyber-Rain Irrigation Controller and love it! It automatically adjusts our watering schedule based on weather and we’ve saved a lot of water this summer (and $$). It’s almost paid for itself already! We control it through our computer and its really easy…
What about eco-turf mixes that require less water, less mowing and less feeding — plus they flower?
And, I’ll put in my pitch for using alfalfa meal rather than synthetic fertilizers. My own dog-toilet of a lawn responds beautifully to it.
And, if mulch-mowing every time doesn’t make sense, those clippings make fantastic early season nitrogen hits to crops like raspberries.
(um, and the dog-toilet is all the lawn left in my own garden. Less is certainly more!)
What’s a low infiltration head ?
Is it some kind of matched precipitation rate head or some kind of specialized rotor , perhaps a low angle VAN nozzle ?
I’ve never heard of this term and either has my irrigation supplier.
Inquiring minds need to know.
Thanks.
Michelle
Michelle,
I’m the one who gave Susan the information on irrigation but misspoke – I meant low application rates, not infiltration. MP Rotators let you water more deeply while minimizing over-spray as they are also matched percipitation. Google MP Rotators and the info will come up. Hunter’s MP Rotators are the only ones I’m familiar with, but there may be other brands out there. You can achieve a similar result by using the “sponge method” and doing several short water cycles in a row, but how many people are going to do that?
This is one of the water saving steps approved by various California water providers, and often qualifies for rebates, which is a great incentive. After I installed an ET controller last fall, my water provider came out and performed a water audit for me, including showing me how to program the controller AND rebated $150 of the $200 purchase price back to me.
“Also, any of those can be used in combination with a slow-acting, organic fertilizer product, applied in the fall only.
Spring feeding? Only if it’s organic and if there’s a particular need; e.g., to restore a neglected lawn. Once it’s healthy, spring feeding shouldn’t be needed.”
I see this advice repeated over and over again, but it is only correct if dealing with cool season lawns such as fescue or bluegrass. Warm season lawns (zoysia, bermuda, St. Augustine, centipedegrass and others) can all be severely damaged by fertilization in fall, yet should be fertilized in mid to late spring/early summer. Fall fertilization on these lawns leads to cold damage aka winter kill, as the lawns do not go dormant early enough.
Garden writers need to remember that a substantial part of the US lies in regions where only warm season grasses will thrive. Because they make their main growth in warm seasons, yet are dormant in winter, their maintenance schedule is essentially reversed from northern adapted cool season grasses. Please make recommendations separately for different lawn types and regions.
Otherwise, l am truly enjoying the new site.
People attach a lot of moral weight to lawns. That is, a well-kept lawn means you’re a person who is industrious, considerate, honest, etc., whereas a poorly-kept lawn means you’re lazy, inconsiderate, and probably have a meth lab in your kitchen. Silly, but there it is.
However, I have found that if your “lawn alternative” looks like it is part of a plan–that it isn’t just an accident of laziness–then neighbors are much more accepting of it (and you). So maybe another bullet should be something about having the lawn alternative looking like it is part of a grand design? Or maybe having a sign explaining things, like David (Montana Wildlife Gardener) does?
I don’t know if that fits in with the spirit of the bullets you’ve got, but I’ve found that it’s helped me get away with a lawn that looks decidedly different from my neighbors–and they still speak (cheerfully) to me…
Also, if you have a current lawn of Bermuda grass, you have to find a way of getting rid of it before planting buffalograss…
“We agree with the universal recommendation that lawns be mowed high, to at least 3″. ”
Another recommendation based on particular species (fescue maybe) that is not ideal for all. St. Augustine will do better when mowed to 4″, while bermuda grass allowed to grow to 3″ will begin to look like a pasture. I’m not going to comb the whole site, but please, please take into account species and regional differences.
I understand you have a writer from Jacksonville, FL. It would be good to have them review lawn growth recs, and ideally add another southern specialist. A lot of us live down here, and more people move down every year from farther north. They have enough trouble adjusting to regional difference without one size fits all advice.
Sorry about what must sound like a lot of snark, but region blind gardening advice is one of my biggest pet peeves.
Thanks, Susan, for taking the initiative on this subject. One other thing, reducing lawn and planting natives is one of the best and easiest ways of providing habitat for wildlife, many of whom are becoming endangered due to habitat loss. Thank you for sharing this wonderful information.
I don’t yet think your bullets are as helpful as they could be for the un-initiated. Although the short form of a bullet is certainly going in the right direction, I think you need more examples of actual products that you don’t recommend. For example, “We recommend against synthetic weedkillers for the lawn, especially the ones in the common weed-and-feed products.” I don’t know how to read labels enough to know what the synthetics are. Similiarly, Does the group of things called fungicides include everything that fights powdery mildew? So therefore, all things that fight powdery mildew you are against or are there some natural methods you like?
Thanks for fighting the good fight
Thanks for the clarification Susan M.
I’m aware of rotor heads and have been spec’ing them for about 17 years, mostly Hunters because of the great nozzle package that comes with them and the ease of adjusting the nozzles with their multi use allen head knuckle screw driver.
I’ve also been doing water audit services for awhile here in Marin and Sonoma where we have two very active Water Departments who have been teaching water auditing and landscape water conservation seminars for the past dozen years.
If you’re located in the S.F. Bay area you might enjoy viewing the Sonoma County Water Wise Educational CD. I contributed several dozen photographs showing drought tolerant landscape installations along with a substantial drought tolerant plant list for the S.F. Bay Area. ( available at most all Bay Area Libraries )
Another great resource is the University of California CD , “Estimating Irrigation Water Needs of Landscape Plantings in California”.
Tons of technical information for getting an accurately detailed water audit.
Also check in with the Sonoma and Marin county water departments in conjunction with the CLCA for ongoing certification classes in water auditing. A great group of people that make a rather boring subject interesting .
A few questions: (1) is a layer of compost on my lawn safe for my kids to play on? any caveats? (2) how do synthetic fertilizers kill the soil (i.e. why should I believe you), and (3) “far more likely to run off” than what? anything, organic or synthetic, applied in excess will run off. It’s a blog: link, link, link! You make a lot of claims and generalizations; without backup, you risk turning away skeptical minds. (Oh, and you’re going to have to sell me a bit harder on the idea of letting dandelions run amok in my yard, as I don’t eat them or find them particularly pretty.) Thanks for taking up the cause!
Hi from uk – just done a blog about your brilliant efforts to “green” American lawns.
I have similar thoughts about the uk where manicured lawns are under threat from climate change and have lost their appeal in a greener world.
Keep in touch.
Best wishes
Debbie Scott Anderson
Susan – as always – I LOVE YOU! Pesticide free lawns sound wonderful. I wish I was coming to GWA to hear even more about your great ideas. As you know by my Garden Rant blog – I’m a veggie garden person. Front lawns could be feeding our nation!
You have my support!
Shawna Coronado
I have been reading a lot on over seeding the pre existing lawn and was thinking of using an ecology mix called “Fleur de Lawn†just wondering if anybody here has had any experience with this grass. I really like the “idea†of a blooming lawn but I hate to trade the annoying weed problems we have for something worse.
Please remember that there is at least half the USA further south that you all in the north ignore in your garden advise. I cut my St. Augustine grass as high as my riding mower allows and have always left the clippings. It is difficult to mow one acre with a push mower even with a good deal of the space covered with plantings.
Also, you assume that everyone has a sprinkler system. Mine is at the end of hoses and I cannot find any sprinkler heads that you reccomend for stand alone sprinklers. Please consider other options.
Karen Russ makes a good point about the regional differences and she’s right about the warm weather grasses and mowing heights. Maybe some of our recommendations should be saved for the arid, temperate, and Florida/warm pages. This way our generalizations won’t be misapplied.
Here are my recommendations:
“â– We agree that lawns be mowed at the highest recommended height for the dominate species of grass. In most cases it will be at least 3 or 4 inches.”
Under fertilizers make the slow-acting fertilizers statement under one button:
“â– A slow-acting, organic fertilizer product could be applied once a year to lawns. In most climates and for most turf grass species, fall is the best season, but warm season species (zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine, centipede grass and others) should be fertilized in mid to late spring/early summer.
A second feeding? Only if there’s a particular need; e.g., to restore a neglected lawn. Once it’s healthy, two or more feedings shouldn’t be needed.”
Under Pesticides, a new bullet:
“â– Once the soil becomes a living ecosystem again with its microbes and worms, the plants growing in your lawn will be better able to support themselves. At that point birds and other predators will also move in.
A poisoned lawn requires increasing amounts of chemicals as bugs and other critters become immune. It’s time to stop the poison cycle.”
Under weeds a new bullet:
“â– We believe in “freedom lawns” where grass and weeds are mowed on a regular basis. If it’s green and if it takes to mowing, then it’s a welcome addition to a freedom lawn. Over time, the plants best adapted to each part of the lawn take over.”
I wish you guys the best of luck, but you have chosen some recommendations that will stick in the craw of probably 75% of the 60 million Americans with a lawn. There are four: few yardeners want any clover, even more hate dormant, most don’t want any weeds, and I’ve seen more lawns going in at 3 acres than going in under 3000 square feet.
On top of that you didn’t mention what I am certain from my own experience is that the most important step in lawn care is to add organic material in the form of 1/2 inch of chopped leaves every fall. Compost is not food for the soil food web; leaves and grass clippings are food but the grass clippings are 92% water so are more like a snack. Increase the size of the soil food web and grass gets thick (no weeds), roots go deep (few insects and no need for water), microbe explosion (no disease and in three to four years no need for fertilizer). It makes sense to me but apparently all you experts overlook a key step that is free. Not good guys.
GREAT information!!
“Gas-powered mowers and blowers are the worst offenders in the categories of air pollution, noise pollution and, obviously, the use of a fossil fuel.”
I’d like to see the source you used for this please. And be sure you’re listing the actual “worst offender.” Agricultural greenhouse gases from belching cows emit a tremendous amount of methane. Oh, I forgot this is about lawns, not dairy farms. (You’re facts and figures can be misleading. )
Thanks for all the great help in creating this resource! And I’ve added “draft” to the title to let you know it really IS a working draft, put together quickly because hey, nobody’s paying us to do this. So we really DO need help from you all. S
And thank you, Susan. Y’all are doing the heavy lifting.
It is a good read, but living here in Central Florida much of the advice just will not work for me. I have a year-round growing season and have to care for the lawn in a manner reflective of that.
Jeff and other commenters,
Thanks for the overlooked, sound and “free” advice regarding the grass clippings. Susan Harris has opened up the forum and is looking for more of this kind of useable information.
We don’t claim to have all the information for all the zones ready at this point but hopefully with your help, will evolve into a comprehensive source.
I appreciate Susan’s transparency and dedication to the site. Much more information will be added each day.
Please be patient with our efforts and remember that we need and value your feedback!
Shirley Bovshow
Jeff,
Yes, but… to keep those ultra-perfect, high-wattage lawns going. we are using too much water. Plus too many of our waterways are being polluted by fertilizer and poisons are escaping from those lawns.
We realize that we cannot change everyone’s mind on this matter, but if our message reaches a good percentage of property managers, then we will have been successful.
I’m not sure if this is a draft of some “official” manifesto. If so, I recommend against using product names (i.e. MP Rotator).
Not all insecticides & fungicides are terrible (Neem products as fungicide and Tea Tee Oil products for some insects. Even better, encourage Integrated Pest Management (IPM) using beneficial insects to devour the bad bugs.
Recommend non-grass altenatives such as low ground covers (Yarrow & Dymondia in California). And if possible include photos of the alternatives.
Also, even electric blowers create horrible air pollution in the form of airborne particulants.
Apparently I have a “freedom lawn” ! More information, please! In the 20 years I have had stewardship of a lawn, I have: never chemically fertilized, never weeded, never watered, and let half grow into a field. I have ajuga, violets, clover, baby blue eyes, pussytoes, and various grasses, creeping weeds, crabgrass, dandelions, etc. If I have a bare spot I put in moss or thyme or something low. I can’t afford to redo the lawn, so this method is working for me. I suppose if we ever have to sell, I’ll have some explaining to do to unimaginative buyers, but really, lawn snobs are on the wrong side of history, no? Having a funky lawn is fun. A perfect lawn is boring! And, if I may quote a famous Watergate burglar: “The trick is not to mind it.”
When we bought our house (in Phoenix) 12 years ago, it had some green in the backyard. I’m sure some was grass — no telling what variety. We live (surprise) in a drought-prone area and the idea of using water to irrigate foreign grass (which then needs trimming) seemed like the beginning of a mad circle of useless activity and unnecessary expense.
Several years ago we visited a conservancy where one of the staff members had a lovely collection of native grasses. They were stunning and I was blown away.
Recently I found a website that sells native grass and wildflower seeds for “re-vegetation.” I hope to cover the backyard with all manner of drought-resistant native grasses and flowers.
Thanks for this post! Implementing an efficient water regime helps in maintaining the beauty of a lawn. Also we need to watch the amount of water that our lawn consumes. Here are some ways to a water-wise landscape:
* Use less-than-thirsty plants in your garden.
* Keep turf grass to a minimum.
* Group plants thoughtfully.
* Water plants only when needed
Find more simple tips at http://j.mp/uYuL8
Susan, you probably know this, but today’s NY Times has an excellent article about the grounds at Harvard, where lawns now thrive on compost and compost tea. Enjoy!
I’ve never understood bagging lawn clippings. The clippings have such good nutritional value for your lawn. I understand bagging if the clippings are so heavy they’ll choke your lawn, but that problem is solved by simply cutting your lawn on a regular basis. Don’t let it get too long and you should never need bagging.
One of the big challenges for us here in Houston, is our Home Owner Association boards. Many are old school and punish homeowners for neglecting their lawns. They love expansive green lawns. St. Augustine grass is the only grass in our subdivision and it requires a lot of water and energy to maintain. I stopped fertilizing the lawn years ago. I never use weed and feed, nor pesticides. The lawn survived!Reducing the square footage of my front lawn was my first step in an effort on alternatives. I enlarged the beds and planted some of my favorite low-maintenance perennials. My next step is to incorporate vegetable plantings (inconspicuously) in some of the beds.
I know you are trying to keep this short, but it might be helpful to include a link to some information on which grasses work best in which areas. Planting the right type of grass can go a long way to reducing the need for excessive watering, fertiziling.
Great overview, but the comment made by 2 Green Acres is a valid one. The difference in behaviors between grasses is something to take into account before and during your lawn maintenance, lest you carry out strategies that are not effective and wasteful.
I got rid of all of the grass on my property and replaced it with decomposed granite, which looks amazing with plants crawling and creeping all over it. This is not for the person that has 2 acres, but more for the average household.
I have thrown out pounds and pounds of white clover, crimson clover and hairy vetch all over my yard. The white clover goes in places where the yard is actually used, and the red clover and vetch are growing on a strip between my property and my neighbor's property. I live on acres in a rural area, so I have large expanses of pasture and grass that aren't even mowed.
I'm working on turning the yard into a mostly perennial cottage style garden with paths of clover and other groundcovers that won't have to be mowed much. If I can smother the Bermuda and crabgrass in the process, even better. I would also like some hardscape in my seating areas, further reducing the amount of lawn I have to deal with.
This is great! I'd go even farther in the category of "Mowing, Blowing, & Discarding", though. In response to your reader TC, I found a study done in Sweden several years ago finding that "the 20,000,000 small engines sold in the U.S. each year contribute about one tenth of the total U.S. mobile source hydrocarbon emissions, and are the largest single contributor to these non-road emissions."
I've heard many figures stating how much more polluting single-stroke gas engines (such as mowers and blowers) are than car engines, and it's something like 50 to 100 times. The solution to this is indeed (if you're not going to get rid of your lawn) electric or push mowers and good old-fashioned raking!
Elemental LED staff:
Can you provide the source please? I see you have those figures quoted but from where? I'm not disputing the fact that mowers pollute, but so does a cow when it belches. But we're sure not going to stop raising dairy and beef cattle are we?
Wow, trying to find statistics on the EPA web site is like falling into a rabbit hole! Here are some links:
statistics on energy usage trends:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html
Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator:
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html
The most concise figures I could find are these: The Michigan State Univ. College of Engineering states that automotive emissions are 100 to 1000 times less than those of 4-stroke engines with less than 25 horsepower, and that, because the fuel is an oil/gas mixture, they discharge 25% of their fuel as uncombusted vapor mixed with CO2:
http://www.egr.msu.edu/erl/emiss/emiss.htm#index
On the EPA Web site I found that there are a total of at least 85 million 2-stroke and 4-stroke push lawn mowers, leaf blowers, snow blowers, chainsaws, edger tools, riding mowers, lawn tractors, etc. That is, 85 million power tools devoted to lawn and landscape care, this does not include recreational vehicles, motorcycles, etc.
Emissions caused by industrial agriculture are a whole other can of worms, TC! I'll just point you to a piece by David Pimentel, professor of ecology in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who states that grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html
I would recommend trying out artificial turf. The stuff they’ve been putting out looks a heck of a lot better than the green carpets we used to see. With my water bills, the turf actually paid for itself within like a year and a half-