Excerpt from Justin West’s masters dissertation

‘Unlawning what we have lawned’

Lawns are to me an embodiment of the confusion which we as a society are experiencing. Lawns reflect our desire, conscious or unconscious, to control our surroundings and separate ourselves. Lawns (urban parks aside) are actually rarely used in the recreational activities for which they are well designed. They are a leftover from the 17th and 18th century European gentry when landowners were few and labour was cheap. They have continued to act as status symbols, and have spread extensively, particularly in the US following the suburban sprawl of post- WWII. In a NASA sponsored study lawns in the US were estimated to cover 32 million acres.

It is the most extensive irrigated crop in the country (about three times that of corn). 50-70% of residential water is used for irrigation. The collective maintenance budget of this ‘crop’ was in the range of 29 billion dollars in 2002, or roughly 1,200 dollars/using household. That something so wasteful can be a sign of wealth is understandable, but how something so lacking in health and diversity can be a sign of wealth is a reflection upon the dearth of ecological education in our society.

The lawn, it seems, separates us like a moat from the untidiness of our surroundings-be they the neighbour’s property, or a stretch of unmanaged woodland. Neighbours come and go, the woodland grows denser and more entangled, but the lawn-moat remains, an embodiment of a seemingly timeless order. This form of tidiness is in actuality, as Bill Mollison says, ‘maintained disorder.’ Lawns are spatially extended without regard for temporality. The striving forward into complexity and diversity is stunted by each pass of the whirring blades. Our abilities to perceive life’s movements juxtaposed with its durational qualities are rendered virtually obsolete in wastelands of ‘lawnliness.’

Due to their very design forest gardens have high potential for replacing unnecessary and unused residential lawns. They are complex and diverse, which means they are not well suited for large scale mechanized operations. However, they are very low maintenance, but require frequent periodic human participation, mostly in the form of harvesting abundant food crops. And…

…they are beautiful.

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Practice Natural Lawn Care

It’s easy to save time and money by putting these steps to work for a beautiful yard.

Mow higher, mow regularly and leave the clippings.

Mow more frequently when grass is actively growing so that you are only cutting no more than one-third of the height of the grass. This practice minimizes the amount of grass clippings. The desired height of grass varies depending on climate. Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for local recommendations. “Grasscycling,” or leaving the clippings on the lawn, doesn’t cause thatch build up—but it does make lawns healthier. Soil organisms recycle the clippings into free fertilizer, and you save all the work of bagging. Modern mulching lawn mowers make “grasscycling” even easier and homeowners can reduce their mowing time by 30 to 40 percent by not having to bag clippings.

Honey, I Shrunk the Lawn!

• Grass grows best on level, well-drained soil in full sun or part shade.
• Consider alternatives to grass on steep slopes, shady areas or near streams and lakes.
• In these areas, it takes a lot of extra work (and sometimes chemicals) to maintain grass.
• Look for other plants, such as ground covers, better suited to soggy soil, slopes or heavy shade.
• Leave or plant a “buffer” of dense native vegetation along streams and lakes to filter and slow run-off, shade and cool the water, provide homes for wildlife and prevent bank erosion.

Lawns need only about one inch of rain a week in summer to stay green. Or you can let areas of lawn that don’t get heavy wear go brown and dormant— they’ll bounce back in the fall.

Overseeding can improve the quality of your lawn.

• Core aerate in the fall to improve root development and water penetration.
• Follow by overseeding thin areas of lawn with grass seed blends recommended for your area.
• Then “top-dress” by raking in quarter- to half-inch of compost to cover the seed and improve the soil.
• Repeat these steps annually as needed to improve poor lawns.

How  Grass  Grows