Your Yard and Local
Economies:
Ditch the lawn...
Eating
Economically at the Co-op
by Ruth
Smalley
“We superimpose
our lawns on the land .
. . our lawns exist less here than there; they drink from the national
stream
of images, lift our gaze from the real places we live and fix it on
unreal
places elsewhere. Lawns are a form of television.”
Michael Pollan wrote
this back in 1989. He
noted that “lately we have begun to recognize that we are poisoning
ourselves
with our lawns.” Unfortunately, our relationship with turf grasses has
gotten
increasingly dysfunctional since then.
Are you in
possession of a lawn? Need
sufficient motive or momentum to alter that fact? I hope what I have to
say
will move you to take a shovel to it. Lawns exact high social and
environmental
costs. Turf grasses are not native species; they require water- and
chemical-intensive
support systems. Lawns are guzzlers: “Grass requires an inch of water a
week,
and a 25-by-40- foot lawn needs about ten thousand gallons per summer”
(Jenkins). Lawns’ diets are downright dangerous. “Weed and feed”
chemicals
refuse to stay put. Entering your house on shoes, these unwelcome
visitors can
hide out in shadier areas for up to a year, sometimes at ten times
higher
levels than before application, according to the Beyond Pesticides
website. Outdoors,
these chemicals pollute run-off, persisting in streams and shallow
groundwater.
Many are powerful toxins: Of the 32 pesticides used by America’s
biggest lawn care
company, 17 are possible carcinogens. Others are known endocrine
disruptors and
reproductive toxins (www.pesticidewatch.org).
Ironite, a common fertilizer,
packs
a substantial punch of lead and arsenic. The pesticide 2-4-D, chemical
half-brother of Agent Orange, is dispensed by homeowners at the rate of
7 to 9
million pounds annually.
Even if you never
touch the stuff, your
neighbors, parks departments and golf courses may. How, otherwise,
could we
arrive at the eye-popping sum of 102 million pounds annually
for non-agricultural use,
an increase of 12 million pounds over the
2000 rate (EPA Pesticide Sales and Usage Report for 2000/2001)?
So, you say, “I
don’t use chemicals. I let the
rain do the watering. I ignore the yard until I have to mow.” Let’s
consider
emissions: small engines are big ozone contributors. The EPA estimates
an
hour’s mowing creates the same pollution as driving a new car 340
miles.
Researching the debate over catalytic converters, a New York Times
reporter
found that in California,
mowing accounts for “more than 2 percent of the smog-forming pollution
from all
engines,” with mowers emitting 93 times more than new cars.
Aside from its
fallout, the American lawn is
out of harmony with local and regional ecosystems, banishing
biodiversity in
favor of the monoculture of the British manor park. As Pollan remarks,
lawns
“depend for their success on the overcoming of local conditions.” They
also
waste valuable food-growing land. Penny Livingston-Stark, of the
Permaculture Institute
of Northern California,
estimates that “you
could probably feed twenty to thirty families on a half an acre”(Ecotecture).
In his important Introduction
to Permaculture,
Bill Mollison asserts that 20% of urban food needs could
be met by turning all suburban lawns into gardens. Far short of this,
you could
certainly supplement your own diet by replacing a portion of grass with
edibles.
So here’s the plan:
1.Dig or mulch
the largest swatch of
yard you can manage without
getting a hernia or alienating your neighbors.
Cut the rest with a pushmower, enjoying the exercise.
2.Plant native
species, flowers or vegetables.
The Co-op can help,
offering compost and topsoil from McEnroe
Organic Farm in Millerton, along with flower and organic vegetable
seedlings
from local growers such as the Farm at Miller’s Crossing and Buttermilk Falls Organic Farm.
3.Check out
permaculture design concepts.
Toby Hemenway’s book Gaia’s
Garden: A Guide to Home- Scale Permaculture is an excellent place
to start.
4.Involve your
neighbors. Go
to www.beyondpesticides.org to
join the movement for
pesticide-free lawns. Honest Weight is ordering some informational door
hangers
you can use to start spreading the word.
Sources
Jenkins, Virginia
Scott. The Lawn: A History
of an American
Obsession.
“Permaculture: California
Style, an Interview with Penny
Livingston.”
Ecotecture: The
Online Journal of Ecological
Design (www.ecotecture.com/library_eco/interviews/livingston_p_1a.html).
Pollan, Michael.
“Why Mow? The Case Against
Lawns.” New York Times
Magazine,
28 May 1989: 22– 27. Online at www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=33.
Barringer, Felicity.
“A Greener Way
to Cut the Grass Runs Afoul
of a Powerful Lobby.” New
York Times, 24
Apr. 2006: A1, A14.
www.epa.gov/otaq/consumers/19_yard.pdf
www.beyondpesticides.org
www.pesticidewatch.org
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