Environmentally conscious gardeners (including myself) have long called for the elimination of lawns. I remember as a student of horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden nearly 50 years ago hoping that American lawns would be replaced by another type of landscape treatment less dependent on toxic chemicals and less greedy in water and polluting fertilizers. More recently, I have come to regret that lawns provide so little benefit to wildlife.
Despite all this, the area of lawns in the United States has continued to expand. I’ve come to accept that there are reasons Americans are so loyal to turf. As a ground cover, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to install. It is also relatively simple (although laborious) to maintain, so this work can be contracted out to affordable unskilled labor. Additionally, turf is more tolerant of foot traffic than almost any other type of planting, making it an ideal space for children.
I still hope that a lot of our underutilized turf, like the huge corporate lawns that are just for show and require so much irrigation and so many pesticides and synthetic nitrates, will be converted into something ecologically beneficial. It would also be invaluable for homeowners to find space in their lawns to install pollinator plantings and wildlife habitat areas. As for what remains after these subtractions, I think that rather than trying to persuade the owners to dig it up, we should rather encourage the transformation of the residual lawns.
This was the crux of a conversation I had recently with Shay Lunseth, owner of Organic Lawns by Lunseth in Bloomington, Minnesota. I met Shay a few years ago at a symposium hosted by the Ecological Landscape Alliance, and was struck by both his knowledge of turf and his commitment to making it more environmentally friendly. When I reached out to her a few weeks ago, she pointed out that late summer through early fall is the perfect time to start this upgrade.
The first step, she told me, was to assess the suitability of the weed you are growing for the site and climate, as well as your needs. Its lush appearance makes Kentucky bluegrass a popular favorite, but it is a shallow-rooted turf that relies heavily on irrigation and is particularly heavy on fertilizer. Shay worked with a few alternatives. She found a mix of fine fescue—equal parts Creeping Red Fescue, Hard Fescue, and Chewings Fescue—that requires only about half the fertility of Kentucky bluegrass and is more drought tolerant and suitable to poorer soils (as long as they are well-drained). Fine fescue lawns also grow more slowly and only require a few mowings each summer. They are not as hard-wearing as Kentucky bluegrass, so should be reserved for areas that don’t get a lot of foot traffic.
Lawn watering is one of the main users of water in suburban areas. The Environmental Protection Agency calculates that nationwide it uses about 8 billion gallons of water per day.
Homeowners who don’t care to contribute to this wastage of an essential resource will find, Shay says, that turf-type tall fescues are particularly drought-tolerant and better able to cope, in most cases, with the natural rainfall budget. This is because turf-type tall fescues send their roots up to 2 to 3 feet into the ground, tapping into a much deeper reservoir of moisture than Kentucky bluegrass, whose roots typically reach a depth of only 4 to 8 inches.
If promoting pollinators is your concern, Shay suggests planting a “bee lawn,” a concept promoted by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. To do this, Shay adds low-lying flower seeds that tolerate shearing to a fine fescue seed mix. The University’s recommended recipe is 4 pounds of fine fescue seed, 1.1 oz of Dutch white clover, 0.16 oz of creeping thyme, and 1.2 oz of self-heal per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Such a lawn was found by the University to attract visits from more than 50 native bee species.
Late summer through early fall, Shay says, is the perfect time to sow grass seed. Cool and generally wetter weather is ideal and the weeds are not so competitive then. For more information on suggested fall lawn care, listen to my conversation with Shay Lunseth on the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s “Growing Greener” podcast at berkshirebotanical.org/greengrowth.
Be-a-Better-Gardener is a community service of the Berkshire Botanical Garden, located in Stockbridge, Mass. Its mission, to provide knowledge about gardening and the environment through a diverse range of courses and programs, informs and inspires thousands of students and visitors. every year. Thomas Christopher is a volunteer at the Berkshire Botanical Garden and has authored or co-authored over a dozen books.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Planten En Bloemen
