Sustainable Lawncare

Written by Kathy Breznau

So what are you doing this weekend?

Sailing the seven seas? Climbing the highest mountains? Mowing, edging, raking, weed-whacking and watering? 

If it’s one of the first three options, you go! But more than likely you’ll be working in your yard this weekend. And that’s what I want to talk about.

The Cost of a Perfect Lawn…

We are emotionally and culturally tuned to the calming simplicity of a perfectly manicured, uniformly textured lawn. 

Your cost: gone are the moments of delight as bunnies, butterflies and bees no longer frequent your yard, and the cornucopia of colors and textures, that help us SEE the world we live in, is abandoned for a boring uniculture of banality. 

The earth’s cost: loss of diversity, water and soil habitats damaged by fertilizer / run-off, carbon sequestration minimized, excessive water usage, ad infininatum.

Change is personal, but here’s my two cents:  

Steps to a Sustainable Lawn

Create a Native Landscape

Vision your commitment, and then start small. Here are some small steps to get started:

1. A MUST DO:  Visit the Wild Ones website. It is a powerhouse of ideas, instructions and sources including detailed landscape designs. Their motto says it all: Healing the earth, one landscape at a time. https://wildones.org

2. Start reducing lawn square footage. Create a 10’ x 10’ habitat that grows wild and invites butterflies, bees, and birds! I am not talking about a raised garden bed, but food growing can definitely be part of it. Make it a beautiful respite that says ‘mine’.

3. Plant a tree…or two…or three. Help the environment and your home by planting trees native to Michigan.

But hey, if you have to have the lawn—or maybe you are not about yardwork—I get it. Here’s how you can keep your lawn while still making a difference:

Keep Your Lawn, But Make it Sustainable

1. Overseed your lawn with clover or low maintenance types of grass. Obsessedlawn.com  is the best website I have found for guiding you to your best choice. There are grass types that grow deeper roots (less watering), grow slower (less mowing) and do not require fertilizer. WIN-WIN-WIN.
   

   Overseeding your current lawn with these eco-friendly grass seeds is the simplest approach and does not disturb the carbon sequestration of your current lawn. Grasses such as Pearl’s Premium were created without harmful chemicals and do not require any type of fertilizer! Once the grass is established (which can be expensive and include 3 weeks of an intense watering schedule), you are a free bird… forever! No fertilizer required, mowing once a month, and only watering in seasons of drought. Check out the reviews here and here.
   

2. Stop the synthetic chemical fertilizers. Short version: they destroy the microbial health of the soil and can present bio-hazard for your family and pets. If you watched Kiss the Ground, you get it. If not, please know everything starts with the health of the soil.

   Get started with sustainable, organic lawn fertilizers by visiting Obsessed Lawn’s website. I LOVE this website. It provides a great list of products all in one place with short, Pro / Con assessments per product. Some even have microbial additions.
   

3. Stop killing the weeds with herbicides. Now this is the hard one! But, if you focus on building the health of your soil, your lawn will flourish and random weeds will be just that.

   As long as weeds are not overpopulated and “stealing” nutrients from other plants, your lawn will love them! Weeds help with soil erosion, carbon sequestration, restoring biodiversity, and can even help with soil health. De-bunk all the myths you’ve ever been told about weeds by reading this short article!

   We call them weeds but seriously…learn to live with micro view...you will see that nature’s inventory of uniquely beautiful plants will enrich your spirit, open your heart and relax your body. You just need a different filter..turn off the boring, uniculture banality filter and turn on the cornucopia of nature.

Good luck. Kathy