A More Sustainable Lawn

The decision about how (and whether) to maintain a lawn has become much more nuanced as costs rise and options expand.

Americans, including young adults, still love lawns, according to recent surveys. Nearly 80 percent consider lawns important to outdoor living. But balancing the “hard costs,” the labor and the environmental impacts of keeping a lawn requires a real commitment. Not everyone has the time, resources or inclination to do the work.

Keeping lawns small and “jewel like” reduces labor and chemicals, and reserves them for special purposes.

Several aspects of lawn maintenance have changed, along with drastically inflated costs for seed, fertilizer and the rest. We’re also better informed about environmental impacts and health risks. We know that:

• Water is more scarce.
• Seed and “feed” both cost a lot more.
• Extreme heat is increasingly common, and hard on grass.
• We know some weed killers have been linked to cancer and other health problems.
• We know too much fertilizer can “kill” our waterways.

As you see, our approach to lawns must account for a lot of possible negatives. Should we apply pesticides or herbicides to get the “look” we want from a lawn, knowing what we know?

Our recommendation, as you may have guessed, is to avoid most types of chemical treatments, accept a few weeds, and focus instead on the overall health of your yard. Consider these ideas: 

Break it Up. First, perhaps it’s time to think of “the lawn” differently, as a collection of small oases on a property, not a vast and monotonous monoculture of hard-to-sustain grasses. 

Fertilize Naturally. You can adopt natural and less resource intensive (and costly) ways to feed a healthy looking lawn. You’ll not only save a lot of money, you’ll keep that intensive nitrogen from petroleum-based fertilizers from flooding into estuaries and causing toxic algae blooms.

Try Grasscycling. This one’s simple. Don’t bag your grass. Leave it where it falls. The clippings decompose and return nutrients to the soil, acting as a natural fertilizer. This process alone (without the additional species below) provides about 25% of a lawn’s nitrogen needs. 

Overseed with Rye Grass. Overseeding your lawn with rye grass in the fall adds a new nitrogen source. Rye grass grows quickly, providing cover during cooler months, It’s a “nitrogen fixer,” so it’s pulling nitrogen directly from the air, not the soil, so when it is mowed down, the clippings can be left on the ground to decompose. This adds organic matter to the soil, improving soil fertility and structure.

Although considered as an invasive by some gardeners, Sunshine Mimosa plant ground cover can survive and even thrive in the scorching heat of a Florida summer in dry, sandy soils. While it doesn't like heavy foot traffic, you can mow it and go long periods without watering. A long-living perennial, it also tends to suppress a lot of unwanted grasses, and it produces these pretty pink flowers in the spring and into summer.

Use Legumes. Adding legumes such as clover into your lawn also enhance soil fertility. Like rye grass, legumes pull nitrogen from the air into the soil. You don’t need to replace the whole lawn. Just have some white clover on hand to fill in bare spots and reinforce spindly perennial grass.

Barring these techniques and materials, if you must fertilize, opt for organic products made from bone meal, fish emulsion, or seaweed.

Know Your Lawn’s Heat and Drought Tolerance Level

Every grass has a certain level of tolerance for hot, dry conditions. Choose the one that can survive best without constant maintenance. And know how to “read” your lawn.

Douglas Dedick, a veteran landscaper who also writes for yourgreenpal.com pointed out to me that just because a lawn has turned brown, or even black, the roots are not necessarily dead.

“It’s a common misconception that the lawn has died,” he says, “but it may bounce back in the spring. One of the leading causes of brown lawns in the summer is cutting them too low. To avoid a brown lawn in the summertime it is important to raise your mower deck. Now if we are looking for the longest living drought tolerant grasses, it’s important to keep that in mind.”

Assuming Dedick’s point about dormancy applies, and your lawn soil is simply overtaxed, not beyond repair, what kind of grasses should you start transitioning to? He recommends using the off season to overseed and prep the lawn for the next season. Here’s a top-to-bottom list of drought hardiness to consider:

If you want to give your lawn a fighting chance against drought, choose ultra-hardy strains. Source: Turfgrass: Science and Culture By James B. Beard