Lawns

[500channelsurfer]

Lawns. Yes, one of the worst things for the environment is lawns.

This was mentioned in the film The End of Suburbia. A grass lawn is the invention of medieval nobility and royalty. In the first place, it was never meant to be the primary landscape of human civilization that it has become, especially in North America.

As it has become this, it causes the use of gas-powered and energy intensive lawn movers, pesticide and fertilizer use to keep it looking healthy, replaces otherwise fertile land that could be used for farming, lawn owners typically throw away grass mulch and landed raked leaves into the garbage where they decompose anaerobically and release greenhouse gases instead of decomposing naturally and replenishing the soil from which they grew.

There are many alternatives. Suburban homes can make use of space for gardens, patios and alternative ground covering such as fern and creeping vines. Where allowed, dense tree covering can be planted to grow nut and fruit trees.

 

[Lou]

not that I am a proponent of lawns but...
They aren't as bad for the environment as many people thought.
They do a credible job of carbon sequestion.

but yeah, there are many better alternatives.

 

[Veganite]

Ever since my friend put her front garden in to replace her lawn I've considered doing the same. We have spoken about it many times. She has many suggestions if I ever decide to try. My lawn is not very big, however, I have several large trees on my lawn which would present a bit of a problem implementing the type of garden she has.

I don't know why, but I do love the smell of a freshly mowed lawn.

*

 

[Lou]

you can still have a lawn AND a garden.

First off you can make your lawn smaller and add some planter boxes along the edges.
if you have a fence you can grown string beans on it.
and you can plant tomatoes either near the fence or in those hanging thingies.
And a lot of garden veggies can grow in pots on your porch.

I used to take a lot of pictures of yards on my walks. For a winter time project I should make a slide show.

 

[KLS52]

We planted clover in our lawn. It’s supposed to help wildlife. I think white clover is good for bees.

 

[500channelsurfer]

They do a credible job of carbon sequestion.

I worry the carbon sequestering of lawn grass is reduced or often eventually eliminated when the grass is cut? If that grass is sent to landfill or transported elsewhere to be dumped rather than left as mulch on the spot, is the carbon released?

We planted clover in our lawn. It’s supposed to help wildlife. I think white clover is good for bees.

In many suburbs, clover is considered a weed whether legally or culturally and is preferred to be removed. However, I am very happy for you and your bees that you seem to not be experiencing this problem.

 

[Emma JC]

I don't know why, but I do love the smell of a freshly mowed lawn.

that's the grass screaming ...

I do love the smell also - like most plants they do emit a smell when cut or damaged (or in their eyes, attacked). Cutting fresh basil from my plants is lovely and even watering them makes them off gas so maybe it is a happy smell too.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Lou]

I worry the carbon sequestering of lawn grass is reduced or often eventually eliminated when the grass is cut? If that grass is sent to landfill or transported elsewhere to be dumped rather than left as mulch on the spot, is the carbon released?

I'm pretty sure for environmental purposes it needs to go into the compost bin. Many communities have some kind of compost service.
And there are mulching mowers.
oh, and you should be using an electric mower so that you aren''t adding GHG whenever you mow your lawn.

 

[500channelsurfer]

I'm pretty sure for environmental purposes it needs to go into the compost bin. Many communities have some kind of compost service.
And there are mulching mowers.
oh, and you should be using an electric mower so that you aren't adding GHG whenever you mow your lawn.

Yes, it is just too bad that when I used to have a large lawn that the community had few to nil composting opportunities. Good thing these services are improving everywhere now.

Oh, and I wonder just like electric vs gasoline cars, could we have the same debate about lawnmowers? The production and the disposal of the batteries, plus energy used in areas where electric power is generated at coal, gas, nuclear power plants, I here find it much more believable that the electric lawn mower has lower environmental impact than gas mower. For electric cars, I am still not so sure.

 

[Blues]

We just purchased new mower. So we trot of to the mower shop to purchase a battery operated self propelled.
Thankfully it was a well managed shop , they let us take home a demonstration model of theirs .
it had 3 major faults 1 you had to scrape the bottom with a blade to clean it, you couldn’t use a hose as the water would blow back into the electric motor.
The gearing would not disengaged for about 2 feet when you went to turn around.
The quality of the mowing was not good ,this is for a $1200 battery mower.
So in the end we went with a battery start self propelled petrol mower

 

[Lou]

We just purchased new mower. So we trot of to the mower shop to purchase a battery operated self propelled.
Thankfully it was a well managed shop , they let us take home a demonstration model of theirs .

um. not sure about the disengaging but you should not have to scrape the bottom. Looking at your lawn I wonder if your lawn was too damp for mowing. Also I wonder if the shop kept the blades sharp on the demo.

well too late now. My city is on the verge of making gas powered mowers and blowers illegal to sell.

 

[beforewisdom]

Many homeowners in my area ( small yards ), just ripped out their lawns and filled up their yards with native plants.

It looks pretty nice. Some people even went the extra mile and put placards into the ground telling people what the plants are.

Pretty cool.

Lawns are boring. I think everyone would be better off if they took out the grass and replaced it with trees.

 

[Blues]

well too late now. My city is on the verge of making gas powered mowers and blowers illegal to sell.

Personally, I would get in and purchase a petrol model before they do
It was a Stihl battery model I looked at and rejected ....I so want a battery-operated mower.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Here is a previous thread about this (no need to read page 1 of thread) What's your take on insects? with some links worth looking at to other sites

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Lawns. Yes, one of the worst things for the environment is lawns.

As it has become this, it causes the use of gas-powered and energy intensive lawn movers, pesticide and fertilizer use to keep it looking healthy, replaces otherwise fertile land that could be used for farming, lawn owners typically throw away grass mulch and landed raked leaves into the garbage where they decompose anaerobically and release greenhouse gases instead of decomposing naturally and replenishing the soil from which they grew.

I do agree with you mostly, although we do have some grass in the garden. If I owned the house and lived alone, I'd probably not keep maintaining it though.

I do use a battery electric lawnmower nowadays (after the petrol one finally died a while ago) and charge it with home solar, I don't use pesticide or fertilizer, and I throw the cuttings onto the ground rather than the garbage.

In some hot climates however, lawns are gobbling up precious water. I think that is probably the biggest probably where we live.

 

[500channelsurfer]

In some hot climates however, lawns are gobbling up precious water. I think that is probably the biggest probably where we live.

Use of water actually is definitely one of the most important issues. Many lawns are watered by sprinklers automatically, even if it rains!

 

[500channelsurfer]

The strange appeal of garden lawns

The strange appeal of garden lawns

Many of us create or maintain lawns in our gardens without giving it a second thought. But could these innocent patches of greenery be a colossal waste of space?

www.bbc.com

BBC News just posted this whole article about lawns

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I saw that, and sometimes the BBC is not quite on the cutting edge but is slightly ahead of mainstream. So the BBC covering it could be a sign that "lawns are bad" or "lawns are questionable" is going from radical to a mainstream idea. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a change in attitudes over the coming years.

 

[tlc1976]

I like my lawn. I like the open space that is mine. But I let it be what it is. I don’t fertilize, insecticize, water, weedwack, rake, mow constantly, or discard clippings. If it dies it will come back. I mow the acre around the house about every 2 weeks. I cut on the tallest setting and welded on a plate so it mulches. I just go over leaves to chew them up too and leave them there. Anything up close to the steps I trim with a manual weed whip. The 3 acres out front I mow once a month. I spent 17 years in a HOA where I had to keep the lawn mowed sometimes multiple times a week to avoid getting fined. Now finally I can let nature be. If I choose to not mow at all it’s ok.

Between those times I get plenty of birds and bees and butterflies. Also the lawn is full of spiders, some of them pretty big. I let them be, because I hear they eat mosquitoes. I don’t have much for mosquitoes possibly due to that. The bugs can do whatever they want out there. The house and garage however, that is my clean space and I spray the walls with ortho home defense a couple times a year. It works great and they say it’s safe for kids and animals so it can’t be extremely toxic.

Got a lot of big trees in the yard that block wind which helps on winter heating. And not as much to snowblow. And a big woods behind me that I own 5 acres of. Nice place to toss the food scraps and let them decompose or give the wildlife a treat, rather than truck them to the landfill. I get lots of deer and rabbits.

 

[KLS52]

I used the picture this app and found out I have three different kinds of grass on my lawn plus clover which we purposely added because it’s supposed to be more environmentally friendly.
We have panic veldtgrass, perennial ryegrass and Buffalo grass.