May is a great time of the year to redesign your yard to create a natural habitat that can be enjoyed by all. The ideal yard is one that sustains and supports lots of life including insects, rabbits, birds and many others that depend on foraging. So many communities expect – and sometimes even require – homes to surround themselves with lawns. Lawns stretch from one side of the yard to the next and encircle the house. A lawn is a monocrop -- just grass -- that may look beautiful to some but doesn’t contribute to the wildlife like other plants do. A good-looking lawn requires a lot of chemicals to maintain.
Lawn maintenance requires chemicals in the form of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Each time it rains, chemicals soak down into the soil killing beneficial worms and bugs. Chemical-laden rainwater kills small water animals in creeks and streams. Lawns must be mowed regularly to keep weeds from seeding themselves and growing within the lawn. Mowing a lawn regularly requires energy of some sort in the form of fossil fuel or electric mowers. During mowing, gas or oil can drip onto lawns and run off into waterways along with watering or rainwater. Lawns also require irrigation. Precious freshwater is used to water a crop that does not provide any benefit to our pollinators. Approximately 50% of the annual freshwater used is for irrigation. It is estimated that three trillion gallons of water is used annually to maintain lawns in the U.S. According to Bee City USA, 20 million acres of land is covered in lawns in the U.S.
Historically, grass has been used as a ground cover around houses since the 1700s, beginning in France and England. Only the rich were able to have lawns due to the amount of care they required. Less wealthy people did not have the land, the livestock to eat down the grass to keep it short, or the manpower to maintain them. Over a period of 100 years, lawns became a trend in the U.S. Interest in golf initiated research about lawns and grasses in the early 1900s. By the late 1940s, rotary powered lawn mowers were marketed, increasing the number of households that replaced gardens with lawns. Also contributing to the increase in lawns was the adoption of the 40-hour workweek which freed up workers to spend time in their yards. Over time, lawns have become the rule rather than just an exception. Popularity has grown despite the resources required to maintain a lawn.
For the health of the environment, replace lawns with native perennial plants that are easier to maintain, tolerate the heat and require less water. Native plants thrive with minimal care and provide food for the pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Replace lawns with meadow and prairie grasses as they are more diverse and require less water. Prairie grasses provide food for the birds that overwinter. Environmentally friendly alternatives that look attractive but are less dependent on toxic chemicals are available.