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 There
exists a curious phenomenon in our country found in few others
around the world: The mania for the perfect, weed-free lawn. The
word mania is apt, for this passion for wide swathes of unblemished
grass is like a disease which strikes men of all ages and classes,
and causes them to spend huge amounts of time, money and resources
in an attempt to create the perfect lawn. (I say men here advisedly,
for it seems to be a principally male occurrence.) The only way
to do this, of course, is to load the turf with huge amounts of
fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and then mow the now Astroturf-like
creation with machines which spew out more pollution in a single
use than the average American driver creates in a week. When viewed
from this perspective, the pursuit of the perfect lawn sounds
a little silly, though it wasn't always this way. In fact, the
Great American Lawn is a uniquely post-World War II creation,
and deserves to be relegated to the same ideological garbage heap
as some other gardening gems of the period, such as "low-maintenance"
gardens, "harmless" pesticides, and asphalt front walks.
If you could travel in time and see what our colonial fathers
called a lawn, you might be very surprised. The term "lawn"
meant a flat, green ornamental area specifically for playing outdoor
games, such as bowles during the colonial period, and later (after
1850) croquet. Such lawn areas were generally quite rare and limited
in extent, and exclusively the province of the very wealthy. Before
the portable lawn mower became common after 1870, maintaining
a lawn required full-time gardening help to meticulously scythe
and roll it into shape. It was, in fact, the advent of the lawnmower
which caused the rise of the "Great American Lawn."
Suddenly, everyone from maid to minister could have their own
green sward with minimal labor. Lawns sprung up everywhere as
status symbols, and became a common feature of late Victorian
gardens. Long after the mower made grass democratic, people still
associated lawns with affluence and power, and strove for bigger
and better examples than their neighbors. This practice has continued
up to this very day, to the point that the lawn care industry
consumes billions of dollars a year!
The original makeup of lawns also may surprise you. The first
lawns were just mown pasture; whatever flowers or "weeds"
existed were let be. Later in the 1800s, nurseries began to sell
specialized seed mixtures. The lovers of the monotone lawn that
modern chemicals produce would no doubt wince at the mixture for
a perfect lawn given by Frank Scott in 1876:
12 quarts Rhode Island bent grass
4 quarts creeping bent grass
10 quarts red top
3 quarts sweet vernal grass
2 quarts Kentucky blue grass
1 quart white clover
 Some
lawns were not even made of grass. Besides clover, rye, crabgrass
and even dandelions (horrors!) were considered by many to be perfectly
acceptable. The only thing that mattered was that the lawn be
flat and green. (Much care was taken to roll the lawn every other
week or so.) This happy state of affairs was to change forever
with the rise of chemical use in gardens after W.W.II. Suddenly,
a perfectly green, single-grass lawn rippling monotonously in
the breeze became the norm, thanks to all those fertilizers, herbicides,
and that great boon to time-pressed homeowners - the gas-powered
mower. Although the lawn has long since ceased to be a symbol
of wealth, like lemmings to the sea we continue to follow the
path our Victorian forefathers set. The lawn has come to dominate
the average American landscape, not, as it should be, one part
of many harmonizing with a greater whole.
Now don't get me wrong. I like a nice lawn as much as the next
guy, and for kids, nothing beats a lawn as a play area. Just not
so much, and not so often! When I look at the acres and acres
of rolling, immaculate lawns which overwhelm suburbia today, installed
simply because a more interesting alternative could not be thought
of, I just can't help but think of the aesthetic loss to us all,
not to mention the environmental cost: the air and noise pollution
from all those mowers and blowers, the landfill problems from
the waste, and the millions of tons of excess fertilizers and
pesticides washed into the lakes and streams, poisoning aquatic
life. All this plus the huge cost of keeping this charade of a
landscape green, especially in the West where water is a concern!
Between the cost of installation, mowing, watering and other maintenance,
a modern grass lawn is, per square foot, the most expensive ground
cover around.
So what's the solution? For those interested in historical accuracy,
the first and simplest step is to fire the lawn people with all
their chemicals and tolerate a few weeds. As we saw from the recipe
above, lawns were a heterogeneous mixture of grasses and other
ground covers, which gave them character and durability in adverse
conditions. Let's face it - those spring flowers dotting the lawns
are quite pretty, and any that get too enthusiastic can be controlled
by mowing. Gardeners also should note that certain types of ground
cover plants, like clover, help keep the lawn green during periods
of scant water. Here in Southborough, we have an area of lawn
that is out of the well's reach, and which historically browned
out every summer in July and August. I didn't want to have to
install some kind of watering system, so I top-seeded white clover
into the existing grass. Now, not only does the lawn stay green
all summer, in early June my bees have the benefit of all those
clover blossoms for honey production, not to mention the lovely
scent that fills the entire house when the evening breeze arises.
Next, consider lawn alternatives, or at the very least, justify
your areas of lawn. In my experience, many lawn areas would be
better used in some other way. Areas for special activities, such
as children's play, are best kept as lawn. Small areas of lawn
also compliment beds and borders. But don't use lawns for lack
of anything better to do. Take inspiration from our gardening
forefathers. Colonial landscapes had very little time for lawn
- too costly and nonproductive. Instead, hard-surfaced areas were
common wherever outdoor activities were concentrated, and beds
of flowers, vegetables and groundcovers filled most of the other
space near the house. Woods, meadow and other wilder areas filled
the rest. While lawn usage increased as the 1800s wore on, the
Victorians tended to break up large expanses of lawn with trees,
flowering shrubs, and beds of annual and perennials. Even by the
early 1900s, the beginnings of the turf's heyday, lawns were clearly
only part of the overall design, not the focal point of it. Lawns
were meant to compliment the house and other areas of the general
landscape, and to link the various parts of the whole into a single
unit.
So the next time it's 90 degrees outside and it's time to mow
that useless half acre, sit down in the shade instead and think
about other, more interesting ways to use that space - you'll
be glad you did.
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