The Situation
My dog doesn’t like me saying this, but these are the miserable dog days of summer: A hopelessly hot and arid time of the year when even avid gardeners throw in their towels and go indoors. Growing things that thrive is no longer the goal. Instead, it’s about enabling survival, and triage for plants that may not make it through the summer battle.
Watering the garden becomes an everyday chore in August, which is about the same time that I start questioning the idea of a lawn in my life. My frustration comes from the awareness of water usage – both the cost and the environmental concern. It's important to consider because landscape irrigation is estimated to account for nearly 30% of all residential water use, totaling nearly 9 billion gallons of water per day.
Our Lawns: This map shows where the lawns are across America. Scientists estimate that more surface area is devoted to lawns than to any other single irrigated crop in the country.
Turf War
The debate between those who love lawns and those who don’t has heated up over the past decade. I've met gardeners here in blistering Texas who are vehemently turned off by the mere sight of a lawn. They see it as areas of wasted water. And they're right because many homeowners overwater lawns in order to keep them green. Worse yet, many lawns are watered during the wrong time of the day, which means evaporation of a precious resource. Then there's water runoff, which, when combined with all of the above, suggests that around 50% of our residential water is wasted due to bad practices.
Another problem is that homeowners tend to overuse herbicides in order to kill unwanted plants (aka weeds). The herbicide industry accounts for an estimated $26 billion. In the future, we may see drones that are designed to target and kill the plants we determine as weeds in our lawns. This will help prevent the blanket spraying and indiscriminate dispersal that happens today. Until then, the amount of herbicides used (not to mention pesticides) impacts our suburban ecosystems in a profoundly negative way.
Tradition
Frustrating as it may be to hear about the negative aspects of lawns, it's hard to imagine an American home without one. Many neighbors are connected together by these meticulously maintained green carpets. Estates have lawns. Suburban homes have lawns. Even homeowners in the middle of nowhere carve out a sliver of their acreage for a lawn. Having a lawn is a part of our culture. It's about order, tradition and respect for the "rules" of what it means to be a homeowner.
Surburbia: Levittown, PA. This famous community of 1950s was designed to attract the working class with modern homes surrounded by lawns. Numerous community rules were established, such as no drying laundry outside and no fences in front yards.
Connectors: This is a typical Dallas suburb today. Lawns continue to be used as a way to connect neighbors.
A rural home: Somewhere on the road between Austin and Dallas, I photographed this remote home on a large plot of land. Notice the lawn – with no fence in the front yard.
The estate: This mansion is very near downtown Dallas. It's surrounded by some 3-5 acres of turf. The luscious green carpet stays consistent in color and texture year round. No small feat.
Aesthetic Origins
Our suburban green lawn aesthetic was likely inspired centuries ago by the estate gardens of Europe. Landowners with means communicated their wealth by dedicating a portion of their property for something other than growing food. Land that had no functional purpose other than being a lawn suggested wealth and status. It required laborers, but that was of no concern to the elite. In the 1700s, it seems likely that our founding fathers, in spite of their egalitarian ideals, acquired their taste for landscaping from the aristocratic classes of Europe. Thomas Jefferson, during his travels to France in the 1780s, was known to admire the Jardin des Tuileries and Versailles so much that he duplicated some of the design sensibility and practices in his own estate.
The Tapis Vert, or green carpet: This unbroken expanse of lawn, used as a major design element in the garden, was installed at Versailles in the late 1600s.
A mapping of the gardens at Versailles. The original design was highly geometric.
The White House, Washington, DC: Before becoming the capital in 1790, it was a sprawling, 100-square-mile plot of plantations, forests, and hills. (1926. Library of Congress)
The Turf Defense
Apart from our European inspired design aesthetic, there's a long history behind our love of lawns. For starters, the idea of having an open lawn around a home was important for security purposes. A low-lying lawn enabled better site-lines for safety – from both people and animals. That’s why clear-cut areas that looked like lawns around settlements and fortresses date back to ancient times. This approach is often seen in historical images of American homesteads. And even today, there's a trend to keep approaches to homes clear of brush and woody areas that might become a cover for burglars.
Another practical concern was the control of rodents, snakes and insects. We take it for granted these days, but this was far more important in previous centuries, and still is in rural areas. It's easier to keep predatory pests at bay when grass, a natural wildlife habitat, is closely shorn to the ground, whether by sheep, scythes, or present day lawn mowers.
A Homestead: The McCulloch Farm in Wheeling, West Virginia dates back to the late 1700s. The open space around the home was established back then and is still around the historical site today.
A more current-minded defense of turf also gains (or perhaps maintains) ground for other reasons – the health of our environment. Lawns can be highly beneficial because grass converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. In fact, a turf area of 2,500 sq. ft. produces enough oxygen to meet the everyday needs of a family of four. This means that each acre of grass produces enough oxygen for 64 people a day. These numbers are likely greater than what native plants do for us because grasses have a higher leaf density. Additionally, grass grows quickly.
Another benefit is that lawns lower surface temperatures. This may not be important in cooler climates, but in the South, a lawn might be cooler than asphalt by as much as 30 degrees. It's also cooler than bare soil by 14 degrees. Which suggests it should be considered more often as a landscape solution in urban areas.
Landscape architects and engineers also appreciate grass for its ability to prevent and control erosion. Because of its extensive root system, which binds the soil together, grass is an affordable, fast growing solution for slopes and hills where weather conditions can be harsh on the landscape and soil.
There's also a subjective argument: For those of us who love the art of the garden, there's nothing like a well-placed lawn to frame the view. Used smartly, the green carpet draws your eye to the fireworks of your landscape. Dramatic ornamentals, elegant edibles, exotic natives and other visually appealing plants are beautifully offset by the simplicity and breathability of a lawn.
The Field of Battle
While the pros and cons of lawns will continue to be debated, I'm constantly aware that lawns are an easily defendable and desirable part of garden design. The gardener's field of battle should shift from whether to have a lawn at all to what variety of grasses should be used and how to care for them without hurting our environment. That's something I plan to focus on, once I get through these dog days. (Sorry, Bobik.)
From Texas AgriLife Extension:
My random thoughts and observations:
Albrecht Durer's Turf: I love this illustration not just for its artistry, but because Durer created this in the late 1400s. It's an amazing illustration of grass, done from an intimate, scientific point of view.
Harewood House: This is an illustration of an English estate from the 1800s. I like it because it shows sheep – the natural lawn keepers – grazing on the property.
Icelandic Turf Houses: These type of houses are thousands of years old. I like this example of how turf can be very sustainable. Not only did it provide insulation in cold, rainy climates, it's a living, breathing building material. Homes are being built with new materials now, but the idea of using turf as a building material seems highly appealing.
Zoysia Grass: This house in my neighborhood is one of my favorites for its velvety lawn (the garden itself is unremarkable). I believe it's Zoysia grass, which has been trendy among newer homes. Zoysia is an expensive turf. It's shade tolerant, like St. Augustine, has great wear resistance and grows slowly, which means it's not as expensive to maintain once established. But it's not as drought tolerant and requires more frequent fertilization.
Buffalo Grass: I don't see this grass in our Dallas neighborhoods very often because there's still a desire for more conformity between houses. But I like it. Buffalo Grass is common in prairie regions and is a Texas Native grass. It's easy to maintain because it doesn't grow very fast and has a forgiving, casual look.
Two homes, two lawns. These are two lawns in my neighborhood, both planted at around the same time by two separate builders. I believe the one on the left is Bermuda (with some crabgrass weeds). The other looks like it may be Buffalo Grass, mowed lower than usual.
St Augustine: This is the same grass, maintained two different ways by two neighbors who don't look like they communicate with each other. I always laugh at the two lawns. The one on the left is cut too short for the heat of our summer. The one on the right is much better. But the funny thing is how different they look, even though they might as well be one.
St. Augustine closeup #1: I took this photo to illustrate what St. Augustine looks like after mowing. You can see the blades of grass look dry and damaged. Worse yet, it's been cut too short for the summer, which means the grass is focusing on growing up vs. increasing its root strength below. Grasses that don't have strong roots have a hard time surviving the heat. They're also prone to more diseases and can't fight off the weeds as well.
St. Augustine closeup #2: A week later, I took another photo of the same lawn. See how much greener it is? This is a healthier lawn because it's left to grow longer.
The St. Augustine lawn: I love this garden in my neighborhood because it's such a healthy lawn. But overall, I'm not a fan of St. Augustine because of its wide, leafy blades. It's not as velvety as Zoysia and Bermuda. But it's the most common grass in our region 8A and 8B. It's fast growing and shade tolerant (most grasses are not). It does well in our heat, but requires good irrigation and year round maintenance - such as fertilization four times a year.
A corner of my lawn: This is my (unintentional) tribute to Albrecht Durer's illustration of grass. There are at least four types of grass in this small patch. They're all fighting over their turf – which is fine with me because when we mow them down, they all look green enough. It's a bit of a gumbo: St. Augustine, Bermuda, Horseherb and Crabgrass, among other things. Someday, I'll decide which one to go with and re-sod.
My Horseherb: You can see how small it is in the above photo. This delightful plant has soft, small, shrub-like leaves and blooms a good part of the year. It's actually a good groundcover and grows very well in Texas lawns because it's a native plant. I love the fact that it's drought and heat tolerant. Plus, it attracts butterflies and provides nectar.
Crabgrass: I leave you with a story regarding this weed. One plant can produce 150,000 seeds before it dies in the fall. Gardeners shudder at the mere thought of it. The plant is decidedly unattractive, which is one reason it's a weed. But livestock love it for its flavor, and ranchers love it because this fast growing, easy weed is very high in nutrients. In contrast, Milkweed, which is loved by gardeners, is hated by both ranchers and farmers because it's poisonous to livestock and overtakes fields. Despite the fact that it provides a source of food and nectar for the threatened population of Monarch butterflies, it's unwelcome in many working areas of the country. Which brings to mind the saying, "one person's weed is another person's flower."
Speaking of flowers, here's my dog, Bobik. We haven't really discussed the matter of lawns, but I know he does a lot of business on them. Like, a lot.
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