From the category archives:

Lawn

What a holiday card from a lawn activist looks like

This is what a holiday card from a lawn reform activist looks like – in this case from Tom Engelman of the Grassroots Program in California.  Attached was this extra message: that his patch of Buffalograss in Santa Monica had received no watering during December-January at all, and only every two weeks or so the rest of the year.

So I wrote to ask about this organic colorant – like what's up with that?  And Tom wrote back:

Personally, I'm good with the brief (60-90 day) seasonal changes to my Buffalograss (around the rocks). However, I used the colorant as a teaching tool because 95% of folks in the West want year round green. So I want to show how to have your cake while turning off the water/mower for a few months. The picture shows a test of two organic colorants — one lighter and one darker.  One was from this company.  I'm still hunting down the ingredients for the other colorant but remember it being certified 'organic' by a California nursery chain.

NOW here's my question:  If it's true that "95% of the folks in the West want year-round green," somebody needs to tell them they're in the ARID WEST, for crissakes.  Time to change some norms. 
 

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The Lawn Reform gang asked for your comments and got lots of ‘em – thanks!  Here’s the greatly amended version now on our website.  Comments are enabled there. [click to continue…]

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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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Nine of us garden designer/writer/rabble-rowser types have been conspiring for a while now to come up with a way to bring attention to the problems with the American Lawn as we know it, but even more so on all the solutions we have to choose from – better lawn types, organic, low-water lawn care, and alternatives to lawn altogether.  Because you know where the public is always sent for gardening help, right?  Those Extension Service websites.  Well, most of them are still telling us to "green up" the lawn in the spring, water a inch every week throughout the summer, and kill that awful clover.  Yep, the need for information about better choices is clear.

So we pitched in a hundred bucks each, hired a designer, and put together what we hope will be an inspiring website.  A little more scheming resulted in a Facebook page, a Flickr group, and printable materials for other lawn reformersr to use locally. 

And today’s our big coming out party!!  So mosey on over to LawnReform.org and look around.  It’s just a start, and puh-leeze send me your suggestions for books, articles online, success stories about overturning laws and rules that mandate perfect, green lawn, etc.  And spread our link – especially to the Resources page – because right now people looking for help online are finding pretty much nothing. Seriously, I Googled "lawn replacement" and found a website that was nothing but stolen content, including my own.  (We reported that sucker to their server and got the site taken down stat.)  But soon, people looking for help with find it, and they just  might make some changes.

WIN THE AMERICAN MEADOW LAWN BOOK
John Greenlee is a pioneer in the use of sustainable plants as lawn alternatives, many of them regionally native, and he’s teamed up with the fabulous photographer Saxon Holt and Timber Press to create what we can safely assume is a gorgeous and informative book about meadows.  To be eligible to win a copy, write a blog post or blog comment on this subject: "I used to have a lawn but now I have____________."  Coalition member Susan Morrison is in charge and has all the details on her blog. THIS JUST IN:  Greenlee and Timber have a trailer for the book on YouTube.

ON PARTERSHIPS
I love ‘em (obviously) and the Lawn Reform bunch is awesome.  And about websites, you know I love them because I have so damn many and I have enough now, thank you.

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If you’ve followed the links on my WowOWow.com article - "Coming soon: The Death of the Great American Lawn" – welcome and look around.  For more articles about lawn, check out the categories "Lawn" and "Lawn Substitutes" over in the right.

Then on my website there’s a whole section called Lawn Reduction and Lawn Substitutes, with examples from across the U.S.

Next up from me on WowOWow I’ll be blogging about solutions – better lawn species, better ways to care for lawn, and alternatives to lawn altogether – and where to find them.  And where to find them will be a new website that’’s launching next month.  It’s the combined effort of Paul Tukey, Ginny Stibolt, Susan Morrison, Tom Christopher, Evelyn Hadden, Billy Goodnick, Shirley Bovshow, a movie producer/environmental activist named Tom Engelman, and yours truly.  

Photo and plant credits, clockwise from upper left: Prairie Dropseed at the Scott Arboretum by Susan Harris; Sedum acre and Dutch white clover by Susan Harris; UC Verde Buffalo grass by Tom Hawkins; and Carex pansa by Owen Dell.

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by Guest Blogger Tom Hawkins.  Tom’s a San Clemente, CA horticulturist and the owner of Florasource Ltd., a supplier of young plants for nurseries and gardens.

The recently implemented “Cash for Grass” program by the City of Los Angeles (D.W.P.) is an earnest attempt at addressing the limitations of our state water supply and the tremendous waste of water in our urban landscapes. But is this based upon sound science and is it a good investment
in the long term?

Past city incentives have included synthetic turf rebates, an interesting choice considering published research which points to both environmental and personal health problems that can come with this product. The current program doles out cash when turfgrass is removed and replaced with “something besides turf”. Per the program guidelines, acceptable turf substitutes may include various drought tolerant groundcovers or native plants; emphasis is placed on plants that require a minimum of 15” of water per square foot per year.

Is turfgrass the problem, however, or is it the type of turfgrass we find in our California landscapes? With very few exceptions, California’s residential and commercial lawns are all “exotics”, coming from outside of North America. These turfs include Tall Fescue (Europe), Blue Grass (Europe), Bermuda Grass (Africa), Zoysia (Philippines), Seashore Paspalum (tropical Americas), and St. Augustine (West Indies, West Africa). All of these grasses come from areas
with much higher rainfall than California. Of these, tall fescue is our most common landscape turfgrass state-wide, and this grass type is also one of the most water-requiring, using upwards of 40” to 50” of water per square foot per year.

Do we need to give up our lawns? Should we give up our lawns? And is this rebate truly directed at replacing turf with something smarter and for the long run? Temperatures in cities around the world are on the rise due to the urban heat island effect. Numerous studies have shown turf grass to provide the greatest evaporative cooling effect of any planted landscape. Turf also reduces water runoff, increases ground infiltration, and helps to purify water before ground water recharge.

What about using a much more water-friendly turf, such as a native Carex or buffalograss? Years of research at UC Davis and Riverside resulted in a buffalograss selection called ‘UC Verde’; this grass has been shown to get by on just 12” of water per year, makes a beautiful groomed turf at 2-
3” tall, or it may be grown as a short meadow at 6” in height. The water savings is 75% over tall fescue lawns…that’s huge.

Finally, what of the economics of a Cash for Grass program? According to the L.A. Times, Southern California water managers were impressed by the Cash for Grass program in Las Vegas, where water officials report more than 125 million square feet of turfgrass has been removed at a rebate cost of $1.50 per square foot, saving 7 billion gallons of water per year. This is effectively spending $187 million dollars to offset 7 billion gallons of water use, but with the end result of giving up lawns entirely.

The estimated cost of switching out an existing lawn for a more environmentally correct lawn variety comes to less than $ 0.75 per square foot, all the while allowing for the long term benefits of turfgrass and without adversely affecting our local climate. This may make sense (and cents) at almost anytime, but especially so when expenditures and climate change are daily concerns.

Photos:  Top, UC Verde Buffalograss, uncut. Bottom: UC Verde plugs.

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Over on The Daily Green, organic-lawn-care crusader Paul Tukey has provided some great lawn care advice and made his case in a very readable, approachable way. (Maybe that’s why the American Hort Society named him Garden Communicator of the Year in ‘06.) 

Now The Daily Green may call refer to Paul’s 21 points as "tips," but we know better – they’re waaay more substantive than that overused and dismissive word conveys.  AND most of them link to full details on each point – a handy feature that’s one of the coolest things about writing online, among many cool things.

Here are the topics Paul covers.  Each entry is nice and short for online audiences.

1. Testing the soil.  Here I can’t resist saying that maybe most Extension Services do soil tests but not the ones in Maryland or DC, so the DC Urban Gardeners recommend the University of Massachusetts, which costs only $12 and I used it myself with good results.

2.  "Grow the right grass."  YES!  With links to Seedland.com. 

3.  How to reduce watering, with a link to his longer piece about  saving water.

4. "Think of your soil as alive" is a terrific statement of the difference between chemical treatments and organic maintenance, and wouldn’t we all prefer healthier plants that need less maintenance?  With links to a host of videos.

5. "How to mow" includes ‘Don’t mow unless rain is in the forecast," which I’d never heard before.  Added to the complexities of trying to mow often enough but not too often, and waiting for the grass to dry off after rains or dew, I’m sure glad I don’t mow anymore because having to factor in future rain would send me into spasms of gardener anxiety.  Oy.

6. "Know your organic fertilizer" links to The Best Way to Fertilize Your Lawn.

7. "Fertilize your lawn with kitchen and yard waste" might add another smidgen of anxiety for me if it didn’t blessedly include other options, like getting compost from your city.  It links to How to make and use compost.

8.  Listen to Nature’s messages connects dandelions and plaintain to soil deficiencies and links to a cool book that’s out of print.

9.  "Try a Kinder, Gentler Aprpoach to Pests" is wise and links to a pest ID site and where to buy good organic products.

10.  "What do do about bare spots" urges people to do what almost nobody who takes care of their own lawn does – reseed bare patches as needed.  I’ll add that overseeding thin lawns in the fall is something else that almost nobody does, but should.

11.  Paul’s suggestions for other solutions where lawns don’t do well includes a link to the groundcover company JeepersCreepers, which I’ll be exploring.

12.  "Invite clover, Mother Nature’s fertilizer factory" is music to my ears and links to Six Reasons that Clovers is NOt a Weed.  We have 50 years of clover-bashing to counter, but it’s time we start trying. 

13.  Is a sober warning about using products on our lawns that over the long term are toxic to children.  Really, is a perfect-looking lawn is worth risking our kids?  Sheesh.

14.  This item gives the good news about moves in Canada and even in the US to ban lawn pesticides, and links to What we can learn from Canada and Connecticut.

15.  "Get your town to just say no" tells the story of a small town in Massachusetts that took action and encourages us to follow their lead.

16.  Interesting item about lawns and their connection with games, including links to some surprising info about lawn games.

17.  This one covers the benefits of aerating our lawns, but the good news that if you maintain it organically, you’ll never have to!

18.  A brief introduction to grass clippings versus thatch includes more good news – that you won’t have to worry about thatch if you maintain your lawn organically.

19.  This "tip" covers acidic soils and the addition of lime and the best way to do it.  Again soil tests are key and this time there’s a link to a soil-tester.

20.  Is the good news that a golf course CAN be managed organically, like this one on Martha’s Vineyard.

21.  Finally, a little about seed versus sod, and a link for sod.

Thanks a bunch, Paul, and keep up the good work!  

Identification of plants in the collage coming soon.

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Well, this is interesting.  Huffingpost has some "green" lawn care tips, and they actually say NOT to fertilize your lawn.  Now everything I’ve ever read has said that turgrasses – not sustainable plants, mind you – need 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet every year or they’ll turn sparse, thin and patchy, and weeds will take over.  If grass clippings are allowed to stay on the lawn (called "grasscycling") that contributes about a half pound of nitrogen per year, but that’s not enough.  If the writer had recommended adding clover – THEN there might just be enough nitrogen to create a full, weed-preventing lawn.  (Here’s my ode to clover.)

 Here’s a reputable source of advice about lawns and the need to feed them.   The HuffPost blogger quotes two writers whose expertise includes energy, water, and the greening of offices, but there’s no mention of plants.

Photo by Selva.

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I visited a local reader and when he mentioned that he used worm castings on his lawn I asked for more info, please.  So he wrote to tell me exactly what he puts on his good-looking lawn:

  •  "WOW pre-emergence weed control" – this is basically 100% corn gluten with a slow nitrogen release, and I apply it with a hand-cranked hand-held spreader when the forsythia bloom each spring.
  • "100% Pure Earthworm castings" – again, I apply it with a hand-crank, hand-held spreader about a month after I’ve put down the corn gluten.
  • "Gardener’s Gold Premium compost" – goes down at the same time as the worm castings.  (About every three years or so I’ll pick up a small 10-lb. bag of fish emulsion and I’ll mix that into the compost before I spread it onto the lawn).

Then he concluded:  "And that’s it; that’s all I do for lawn care – I don’t apply anything else during the year. As I think I told you, I use no chemicals in this garden at all.  I do mulch the fall leaves into the lawn with a mulching mower.  I hand-weed throughout the growing season when/if necessary (and that’s pretty rare – the corn gluten really does suppress the weeds).  I also keep my lawn high – I let it grow to 5 inches or so and then cut it down to three and a half inches – that keeps the sun off of the soil and helps discourage weed germination as well.  In the hottest part of summer, if we’ve had no rain for 10 days I’ll give it a half inch of water via a sprinkler.

"I’m continuously mystified by the far more complex and expensive lawns regimens that I read and hear about."

And can I just say, his garden looks maaarvelous, and in no small part because he avoids a huge swath of lawn like the one you see here.  His garden is mostly borders, and they’re filled primarily with conifers.  The model of the sustainable garden looks good every day of the year, and costs the gardener very little in time or money.

Photo credit.

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Did you know that: 

  • More herbicides per acre are dumped on lawns than on the fields of agribusiness.
  •  In the U.S. an estimated 7 million birds are killed yearly by lawn-care pesticides. 
  • Phosphorus run-off from lawn fertilizer causes algae blooms that suck oxygen out of lakes, asphyxiating fish.
  • A single golf course in Tampa, Florida uses 178,800 gallons of water every day, enough to meet the daily water needs of over 2,200 people.
  • On average, 7,600 Americans are injured every year using lawn mowers, about the same number as  firearms.

I learned all that from American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg.  Reviewers have aptly compared it to Fast Food Nation - it’s that well written and that important.

Addicted to green

Who’s to blame for all this? The American love of lawns began with the upperclass emulating the landed gentry of England and spread to middle class neighborhoods after World War II, especially in new communities like Levittown, NY, where residents were encouraged to apply fertilizer a remarkable 5 to 6 times a year because super-green lawns "stamp inhabitants as good neighbors, desirable citizens".  The invention of the power mower and advertising for perfect lawns by industry giant Scotts sealed the new ethic of the American lawn for decades to come.  Proof of Scotts’ marketing power (and the malleability of the American consumer) is the fate of clover.  Where previously it had been routinely included in grass seed mixes for its nitrogen-fixing properties, when it was discovered that the new wonder-herbicide 2,4-D killed clover along with crabgrass, Scotts turned on a dime and declared it to be an undesirable weed, and public opinion quickly followed. 

Most worshipers at the Church of the Perfect Lawn are men, and Steinberg thinks it’s because compulsive lawn care gives them a feeling of control – a feeling so often missing on the job.  So ad agencies write copy like: "Show the world who’s boss" and "You’re the boss when you buy a Lawn-Boy," pitches that appeal to notions of manliness, and it works all too well.

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