And I don't like to mow it

A few years ago, I posted about water conservation. I included a poke at one of my pet peeves: lawns.
I will grant you that a soft, lush, green lawn is very inviting and lovely to look at. But the effort that we make to maintain that lush green is anything but Green.

Most of us have lawns made up primarily of Kentucky Bluegrass, which, in it's natural state, wants to grow about 6 inches tall, flower, go to seed and lay dormant for the rest of the year. It takes a lot of work to force it to stay short and green and sterile.
The National Wildlife Federation estimates that

• 30% of water used on the East Coast goes to watering lawns; 60% on the West Coast.


• 18% of municipal solid waste is composed of yard waste.


• The average suburban lawn received 10 times as much chemical pesticide per acre as farmland.


• Over 70 million tons of fertilizers and pesticides are applied to residential lawns and gardens annually.


• Per hour of operation, a gas lawn mower emits 10-12 times as much hydrocarbon as a typical auto. A weedeater emits 21 times more and a leaf blower 34 times more.


• Where pesticides are used, 60 - 90% of earthworms are killed.

My recommendation: meadows, forest glades, rock gardens, patios. We gardeners like to think we're being Green, but unless we give up the lawn mower, the leaf blower, and the pesticides and weed killers, we are not helping.

It's time to re-examine what a beautiful garden should look like.