REDESIGNING THE AMERICAN LAWN FOR ALL SPECIES

Last year, a second edition was printed of the popular book entitled, Redesigning the American Lawn: A Search for Environmental Harmony, written by F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori, and Gordon T. Geballe (Yale University Press 2001). I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get more enjoyment out of her or his home landscape and help improve the local environment. The book was first published in 1993 and has inspired people in the last nine years to transition their communities towards a more sustainable environment via better lawn management. What does your green lawn have to do with creating a more fit physical environment for all species to enjoy? Plenty!

Photo courtesy of the New England Wildflower Society www.newfs.org/

According to the authors, one of the best ways we can improve our local environment is for landowners to move away from their monoculture of a frequently mowed all-grass and continuously green industrial lawn to a more diverse meadow or grove. The new landscape would be natural, would use organic fertilizers derived from decomposing leaves and plant debris, and be primarily made up of native plants, grasses, and shrubs.

For example, the authors pointed out that in Milford, CT, local residents got together on Earth Day 1996 to increase local ecological awareness and anti-pollution activities. In response, the town adopted a “Freedom Lawn” concept. Each year the town holds a competition based on how natural and native a homeowner’s landscape is in the environment. The authors state that “the judges look for chemical free lawns that contain a diversity of plants species, patches of forest or meadow, bird feeders and birdbaths, and the presence of gravel driveways (gravel driveways allow rainwater to sink into the soil rather than run off into the street)…..Each year, up to five winners selected from more than fifty nominees receive a ceramic butterfly, locally handcrafted and donated to the program, a decorative sign for the lawn, and recognition in the annual Freedom Lawn Initiative booklet and in local newspapers.”

Why should you care about redesigning your lawn and home landscape? For starters, it will make your landscape more earthy, more alive, more dynamic, and fun to maintain, as there will be increase opportunities to view wildlife and to enjoy various beautiful native plant species. Sadly, up to a third of our flora species in New Jersey are non-native and this percentage is growing rapidly every year.

As the authors also inform us, there are many ecological and economical benefits. First, natural meadows and forest edges help to increase biological diversity, as they provide important meadow-shrub habitat for a variety of insects, birds, butterflies, and mammals for a healthy food web. This will help to lessen the negative effects of habitat fragmentation and degradation form sprawl, and the invasion of non-native and aggressive species.

Secondly, a natural habitat in your front lawn also helps to lessen non-point pollution from fertilizes and pesticides. Whatever amount (and in some case it could be up to 90%) of these toxic chemicals do not get directly absorbed by your lawn will either end up in our groundwater, surface water, or our drinking water. Thirdly, a native plant meadow is nontoxic, requires little watering or maintenance, and is energy effective.

Economically, a natural lawn saves time and money. The authors indicate that sod is an expensive substance. A 9 square foot section of sod costs approximately $4.00. This means that for a landowner to cover 5,000 square feet of new lawn it would cost over $2,200, and this does not even include the delivery, the site preparation, and the maintenance. In some cases, landowners with a monoculture of green grass on just 0.6 acres of land can spend over $400 per year on its maintenance and the purchase of equipment, pesticides, and fertilizers to artificially make it look green. Most alarming in this time of serious drought conditions is that in 1990, according to the authors, up to 30% of drinking water sources on the East Coast were used for watering lawns. The authors also indicate that a natural lawn should be incorporated in initial roadway designs and on all public landscapes to help control the cost of government from ground maintenance activities.

My advise to you this spring and summer is to be bold, be different, and stop being like most Bayshore and Two River residents that have helped to contribute to 31 million acres of lawn in the United States. Seek out a new design for your home landscape that incorporates native plants, biological diversity, and will help to contribute to long-term sustainability in your community. Birds, butterflies, native plants, and our local waterways will thank you!

For more information on native plants in New Jersey, why not join the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. Check out their website at: www.npsnj.org.

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