1000 AD: “Behold, my liege, the Normans doth approacheth with ill intent I do surmise. ’Tis luck indeed to have the luane cleared so as to see their archers and horsemen still far off. Raise the drawbridge and retreat behind the walls!!”
The function of a lawn has changed. It no longer has a significant safety function. (Yesterday: “Yikes, honey, salespeople on the lawn. Draw the shades and ignore the bell.”) But the lawn has largely persisted — for a time as a status symbol for the well-off, and later as a pleasant place to relax and recreate for friends and family.
Unfortunately, your lawn has also become — especially in the last 30 years — an environmental liability and a drain on valuable resources. When the front lawn was also a pasture and a woodlot, natural processes did much of the work. But a modern insistence on weedless, perfectly trimmed, and always green has resulted in a massive use of fertilizer and herbicides to keep things in an unsustainable state.
Half of the fertilizer used in the U.S. goes on lawns. Half of that is used on lawns larger than an acre. Pesticides on lawns are often applied at 10 times the rate used in commercial agriculture. The chemicals and fertilizers leach into ground and surface water, contributing to large algae blooms and dead zones in lakes, and even the oceans. Lawn irrigation uses almost twice the water spent irrigating corn, soybeans, alfalfa, fruit trees, nuts crops, and grapes — combined.
Fortunately, you live in Oregon, and grass grows so well here that we can sell it to other people. Grass will go dormant in western Oregon in the late summer but return with a vengeance in the spring. Your grass won’t die if you don’t water it. Most crane fly infestations are caused by too much water. Back off, or stop, the irrigation and like magic, the root eating grubs will disappear.
Fertilizer can be eliminated if you leave the clippings on the lawn. The herbicide-driven weed-free look is a result of modern chemistry, and modern tastes. Herbicides developed for wartime use are now used extensively in lawn care. My parents, after a trip to Switzerland, were delighted to report that the well-ordered populace allowed and enjoyed the dandelions in their small lawns and livestock pastures.
If you don’t want dandelions or other weeds in your lawn, digging them out is simple. Hand tools or electric-powered ones are much better for the Earth than gas-powered machines. (I like the step-down weed popper.) But the grandkids love the dandelions, and those long roots bring minerals and fertility to the surface — where your grass can use it.
I don’t expect all of you to stop watering, fertilizing, and weed-poisoning right away — although the last one should be done cold turkey. But consider just keeping a small area green, and if you must fertilize, never do it in the fall. The grass won’t use it before the rains come, and chemical fertilizers will head straight to the water table.
I do have some patches of (unfertilized, hand-mowed) lawn around, and the vegetables that dominate my landscape use about as much water as others put on their lawn. But I also keep a few patches of meadow. Let some of your grass grow, throw seed, and dry out. It’s a good place for critters (and kids) to play, and it can be a good first step in rewilding part of your yard to benefit the other creatures we share the land with. As an added bonus, it’s a lot less work — with no resource inputs beyond Oregon rain and Oregon sunshine.
