Why are we Obsessed with Grass Lawns?

North Americans are obsessed with their grass lawns. Almost every house in the suburbs and cities has a lawn around the house. The bigger the house, the bigger is the size of the lawn. People spend countless hours taking care of their lawns — mowing, watering, fertilizing, removing weeds, and so on. Usually, the weekends are reserved for lawn maintenance. Those who don’t have time hire lawn care companies to maintain their lawns. A significant percentage of the chemicals we apply on lawns end up in the water resources. (Several cities in Canada have banned the use of weed-killing chemicals by homeowners.) The use of lawn mowers results in a significant amount of gasoline emissions. It is estimated that millions of litres of gasoline gets spilled while filling gasoline in lawn mowers. Grass lawns are water guzzlers — they need about 1.5 inches of water every week, significantly more than most commercial crops! Homeowners spend hundreds of dollars in water bills every month to water their lawns. According to the World Health Organization, 785 million people don’t have a safe drinking water source within 30 minutes of walking distance, and in North America, we pour drinking water on grass lawn which appears like criminal waste to me! According to reliable estimates, the area under grass lawns in the USA is more than eight largest irrigated crops combined, including corn, wheat and fruit trees! North Americans waste so many scarce resources and pollute the environment to grow grass that they can’t even eat — they just feel good looking at their lawns! I have seen people putting signs “Walk off the Grass” on their grass lawns. Isn’t it strange that after so much effort, all we get is a green lawn that we can just look at? How did we reach this stage?

Originally, there were no lawns around houses in North America. When rich people from Europe came to North America, they brought the culture of lawns with them. Initially, only rich people had lawns around their homes, as only they could afford the lawn care. At that time, the average home had no front yard and probably a small backyard which was mainly used for vegetable plants or fruit trees. Slowly, the lawn culture spread to large homes and then to average homes, particularly after the Second World War. It looks like a copycat scenario. It appears that our brains have been conditioned that every home must have a lawn — we never question “Why?” Perhaps, people want to convey that they are good citizens as they take good care of their lawns and they are rich so that they can afford to grow grass instead of vegetables or fruits.

What can We Do to Overcome Our Grass Lawn Obsession?

No doubt that a meticulous lush green lawn looks great, however If we look outside the box, several alternatives are available to replace the natural grass lawns with, which also look equally beautiful.

Artificial Grass Lawn

Artificial grass (turf) is commonly used in most sports stadiums. This grass is made of synthetic material and almost resembles the natural grass. An artificial grass requires almost no maintenance — you don’t have to worry about mowing, watering, fertilizing and removing weeds. Also, unlike natural grass, the artificial grass doesn’t invade other areas and always looks lush green. Another bonus effect of an artificial grass lawn is that it looks green as soon as the snow melts whereas the natural grass lawn will take a few weeks to turn green.

Landscaping

You can do landscaping on your lawn to replace some areas of the grass with flowering plants, shrubs, small trees, etc. to reduce the grass footprint. If you use hardy perennials who have deep roots, they last several years and don’t need much water as compared to the grass lawn. Of course, you can also plant annuals if you like a lot of flowers. In my neighborhood, a few home owners have landscaped their entire front yard! When I look at partial or fully landscaped front yards, they look much more pleasant than a boring grass lawn!

Use Grass Alternatives

You can replace regular grass with ornamental grass or other low height plants, like moss, red creeping thyme, clover and Corsican mint. Your local garden centre may be able to provide additional ground cover alternatives. Each alternative has pros and cons, however, definitely you won’t have to mow your lawn and you will need a fraction of the water as compared to a regular grass lawn, and very little maintenance like fertilizer and weed removal.

Grow Vegetables Instead of Grass

You can grow vegetables instead of grass. Growing vegetables requires less water, fertilizer and care as compared to a grass lawn. Besides, you get fresh organic vegetables which taste much better than those bought from stores. In this process, you also help the environment by reducing greenhouse gases generated by commercial farms, transportation and storage. And let me add that plants with colourful vegetables, like red tomatoes, orange bell peppers and purple eggplants also look beautiful!

Harvest Rain Water

You will do a great great service to the environment by harvesting rainwater from the roof of your house. All you need to do is get a rain barrel and connect it to a downspout. You may buy the rain barrel from your local hardware store or visit www.rainbarrel.ca for a list of locations near your home that sell rain barrels and other accessories. This website also provides useful information about rain barrel assembly and maintenance. I bought three rain barrels a few years ago, and every time it rains, each filled rain barrel saves me about CAD 1.25!

To conclude, think outside the box and reduce your grass footprint!