Clarifying my view on lawns

I’ve spent some time thinking about my opinion on lawns. I like water-wise landscaping and being environmentally conscious, so that means I don’t like lawns, right? Well, not really. I was going over some old school notes, and saw the good points of lawns. Here they are:

  • Tolerate traffic, and lots of it
  • Protect soil and adds organic matter
  • Prevent erosion
  • Sequester carbon (Getting rid of the growing CO2 and greenhouse gases)
  • Keeps down the heat
  • Prevent weeds
  • Productive

In many situations, the replacement for lawn would be pavement. No other plant can take the abuse that we give to our lawns. What other surface is as playable, usable, and as pretty as lawn? It is better to have a living, purposeful thing than weeds or pavement. And lawn itself is not bad for the environment: as a plant it is very GOOD.

So what’s the big deal about getting rid of our lawns. Well, here’s the bad about lawns.

  • Chemical use, including pesticides and fertilizers
  • Water use, especially culinary water
  • Mono-cultures: nothing but lawn
  • Emissions from lawn mowers, weed whackers

In this list, I think a lot of it goes back to management. Chemical use can be reduced to virtually nothing, and water use decreased. We don’t have to get rid of the lawn to get rid of the bad effects of our lawn. I think more education is warranted on better, sustainable management of a lawn.

But that doesn’t mean I like to see large fields of useless lawn. Although it is better than weeds or pavement, lawn is better used incorporated with other plantings. Trees, shrubs, and perennials should all be incorporated in every landscape. Lawn is not a filler plant. Give it more credit. It is the solution for large traffic areas, and the only one that involves plants. Large areas that seem to have no functional use would be better adapted to solutions like shrub and perennial beds. My last post is a great example.

Sum up: Lawn is good. Just don’t use it everywhere.

One thought on “Clarifying my view on lawns”

  1. Meredith/Great Stems says:
    Meredith/Great Stems's avatar

    I’ll add another to each category. Another good point is that some grasses support certain caterpillar/butterfly species, even if the grasses aren’t native. Another bad point is that the same grasses can be very aggressive and hard to get rid of, even when you try to reduce the lawn and put in a perennial bed. Oops, one more — grass lawns also compete with trees for nutrients and water — they don’t play well. You are right — it all depends on management and maintenance, and the best course of action is to reduce where possible. I’m like you — I don’t hate lawns; but they are a major source of water wasting and chemical use. So I look to the owner to be responsible.

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