Is Your Lush, Green Lawn Killing Mother Nature?

Is Your Lush, Green Lawn Killing Mother Nature?
By Jim Hightower



Growing up, I learned a lot of valuable lessons from the example set by my Ol' Texas Daddy: a strong commitment to the Common Good, a healthy work ethic and a lively sense of humor. But there's one thing about him I've rejected: his determination to have a perfect yard of thick, verdant, St. Augustine grass. Lord, how he worked at it: laying sod, (watering), fertilizing, (watering), weeding, (watering), spreading pesticides, (watering), mowing... (more watering). But it was too hot, too dry, too infested with blight, bugs, slugs and such. He was up against Texas nature, and he just couldn't win.
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Beauty and piety aside, though, the spread and intensification of "lawn culture" has become an environmental extravagance that is already unsustainable in whole sections of our country, and it adds up to a steadily-increasing burden on Earth's essential resources. While grass itself is natural, planting and keeping it alive year-round across thousands of square miles is not. And there's nothing "green" about the deluge of pesticides, fertilizers, growth stimulants — and endless rivers of water — applied again and again, yard after yard, trying to keep each of these plots green. And — O, the irony! — their "green" includes eliminating bees, doodle bugs, butterflies... and, well, nature. One statistic tells the tale: Americans use over 70 million pounds of pesticide annually to maintain their lawns. That's 10 times more poison per acre than all of America's farmers use on their crops.

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Of course, some people consider a wild yard to be too scruffy, unattractive... unruly. That's their choice, but some also insist that tight and tidy grass lawns must be everyone's choice. So, they proclaim themselves to be the yard police, demanding that cities and homeowners associations make green-grass-uniformity the law, filing busybody lawsuits and running right-wing social media campaigns targeting people and groups that dare supplant the "perfect lawn" as the ruling aesthetic.

This is not a diatribe against grassy plots, which can be natural joys. But let's get real, get creative and get in touch with the full balance and beauty of nature. These attacks are silly because... well, they are silly, and because they're attacking the future, which is nearly always a losing strategy. You can promote ground-cover sanity right where you live with native plants, xeriscaping, organic methods, rain gardens and "re-wilding" your yard and community. To work for yard sanity and choice, go to https://www.rewild.org/about-us

https://www.creators.com/read/jim-hightower/01/23/is-your-lush-green-lawn-killing-mother-nature