Historically, what we now call lawns started in the 17th century in England when a middle class of people started to develop. Before that only royals and landed gentry could afford the luxury of not using every inch of land they owned to grow food. Having a lawn in front of your castle/ home became a sign of wealth and prestige. The English middle class utilized lawns to advertise they had reached significant wealth and that they too could afford to have an idle piece of land. Lawns soon became an English cultural habit. When the early colonists came to America, they brought this habit with them. Lawns soon spread throughout the colonies and, indeed, everywhere else the colonists moved to. The problem is that we still value our lawns today without really having a clue why they even exist! It is now our cultural habit that feels like a mandatory imperative. We have been blindly following this habit since the earliest English settlers arrived. A lawn is a monoculture that unfortunately from an environmental view, offers a very simplified, indeed impoverished, approach to landscaping. Being a monoculture, (only one plant), the lawn is extreme in its lack of diversity so offers little if any support to native wild life. It is a sterile garden and cannot function as a dynamic community of interacting organisms either in the ground or above it. Lawns can be as sterile as an asphalt parking lot when it comes to supporting nature. Question: In the United States we now have over 40 million acres of lawns. Can we reduce that number, even cut it in half? Considering that the average homeowner’s lawn comprises, on average, about 80% of their landscape, you can see that we have created a huge problem hiding in plain sight, one that very few people even know exists! The lawn environment does not offer any sustainability by way of food, shelter or habitat to any native animals, birds or insects. Other reasons why lawns are a detriment: When you have lawns you use lawnmowers, weed wackers and leaf blowers to maintain them. Each week about 54 million Americans mow their lawns using about 800 million gallons of fuel. This practice alone contributes about 5% of the total greenhouse gases in the U. S.. Then there is the noise pollution. Some communities have recently prohibited these extremely noisy machines from being used from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.. If lawns are fed synthetic fertilizers to grow, and synthetic herbicides to get rid of weeds, we then wipe out all the healthy microorganisms that live in the soil. This leads to the sterilization of soil completely stripping it of the natural life forms that would be beneficial for a naturally healthy lawn. We have made our lawns chemically dependent! Water issues: The synthetic, (man -made), chemicals and fertilizers further harm our environment by leaching out through the soil into our well water supply, aquifers (underground reservoirs), natural watersheds, ponds, streams, rivers and eventually in our oceans. According to a study at Columbia University, 30 to 60% of urban drinking water goes into the watering of our urban lawns. My home town of Ipswich, MA this year, in the first week of April, in an unprecedented move, declared a voluntary ban on the use of watering for outdoor purposes. This voluntary ban was declared because Massachusetts, due to a lack of snow and rain this past winter/spring, already has a deficit of 3 to 5 inches below its normal rain amount. Some Solutions:
AND/OR 2. Choose to exchange little by little, lawn area for gardens. Gradually reduce the lawn area you have by putting in pollinator, butterfly, hummingbird or bird gardens. A trick I use is to carve out a new area in my lawn by using an old hose to create different ‘island’ configurations until I have a design that I really like. Lawns are great for walking. Use them for paths around your many gardens. Remember, to attract native insects, pollinators, birds and animals, use many different native plants. This will bring biodiversity to your property. Now your gardens will be able to support a complex food web. In other words, your landscape will now be able to support a diverse community of native pollinators, butterflies, birds and other animals. Mother Nature will thank you. You have now become part of the solution to a global problem where native wildlife is decreasing everywhere. NOTE: Lawns devoid of dandelion, clover and violets are a Mono Culture. Mono cultures do not support bio-diversity. One of the reasons we all have too many pests on our property is because a large percentage of our home environment is lawn space that does not provide the natural complex environment needed to have a healthy, balanced ecosystem that attracts a diversity of insects, birds and animals that can then provide checks and balances on the number of pest insects. Next Blog: All about hummingbirds – what to do to attract them to your property.
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I have learned many composting techniques from both my Polish grandparents and my mother and father. It was a way of life that was passed on as naturally as the language I learned to speak. My grandparents and parents lovingly tended to their compost piles, adding all kitchen vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, leaves and of course the ‘cow pies’ that we gathered whenever we went for a Sunday ride in the country and came upon any cow pasture. My parents kept small buckets in the trunk of the car to collect these gifts from the cows, as well as any sea weed that washed ashore at Lynn Beach after a storm. A tour of their vegetable and flower gardens was not complete until you visited the compost pile. Its black humus was so soft, fragrant and clean you were tempted to eat it by the spoonful. My father, in his Irish humor, kept a tablespoon hanging by the compost pile, just in case anyone wanted to taste it. No one ever took him up on his offer, but it didn’t stop him from asking. We all knew, the better the compost pile, the better the return of flowers and vegetables! We finished the growing season with the annual ritual of spreading the aged compost on top of the soil of next year’s vegetable and flower gardens. *** Recent research has shown that the smell of humus exerts a strong physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone, oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding between mother and child. A little history: Composting has been going on since plants evolved to grow on soil. Each year Mother Nature produces foliage in the spring and in the autumn the leaves fall to the ground. In nature, this leaf humus is mixed with the decomposing bodies of animals, insects and trees giving a nearly neutral PH, (ranging from 6.9 – 7.2), which is perfect for most plants except for acid-loving plants. After a year or two this decayed matter becomes food for living green plant species. Humans just need to take a lesson from Mother Nature. How the process works: The natural process of composting is carried out by the thousands of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, and small insects and earth worms. They all live naturally in the soil and on its surface. These organisms, like all living species on our planet, need water, food and air. They feed on organic waste materials converting them into compost. This process generates sufficient heat to keep the organisms going as well as killing off most harmful bacteria. Microbial activity will raise the temperature in the center of the compost pile’s core to 140 degrees and destroy pathogens and weed seeds. As the organic material is consumed, the available oxygen diminishes and the temperature in the middle of the pile will begin to drop, finally slowing the process to a stop. Turning the pile frequently will add more oxygen to the pile and the heat will build again, speeding the decomposing process along. This process usually takes about three months. Some common things to add to your compost pile: Shredded paper (no color ink or shine), coffee grounds, tea, animal manure such as from horses or chickens (no dog manure), eggshells, fireplace ash, fruits, vegetables, yard waste such as leaves and grass clippings (don’t add grass clippings if you use a synthetic fertilizer!) hay, straw and wood chips. Do not compost: Meat, fish (fish now has too much mercury in it!), dairy products, fats, oils, cat and dog waste, diseased plant materials, hardy weeds, any green plant material including grass that has been chemically treated and any part of an invasive plant. Why do we compost: No matter what method you choose to use, composting provides huge benefits to the garden as well as to the environment. It enriches the soil by feeding the soil food web, the microorganisms. It improves the texture, drainage and composition of the soil. This leads to happier, bigger and more productive plants while eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. Composting also increases the general health of the plant by boosting its immune system so it can fight plant diseases and pests. And it keeps valuable organic material from ending up in our landfills! (The EPA reports that 23% of all landfill is from yard waste). A word of caution: Do not get free compost from your town’s dump or transfer station. This free compost is not monitored and often will contain invasive plants including their seeds. It can also be contaminated by harmful chemical insecticides, pesticides or herbicides. Rule of thumb - The bigger your garden spaces, the bigger your compost pile needs to be. As your gardens get bigger, so should your compost piles. TIP: You can make a good compost with nothing more than fallen leaves, grass clippings and plant prunings. Even if you do not turn it over or layer it, eventually everything in your compost pile will decompose. Assembling your compost pile:
Bag Composting: This is a very easy composting method and is fine if you have a small garden. Place leaves and green and brown material into a black plastic bag. Add two shovels of dirt or manure. Add water to dampen the material. Poke 10 holes in the bag and place it in a sunny spot. Turn a few times each week and add water if it dries out. The finished compost will be ready in about 6-8 weeks. Trench Composting: This method works especially good in your vegetable garden. At the end of the growing season dig rows of 12” deep trenches and fill with organic brown and green material. The next spring, plant your seeds or plants in rows next to these trenches. The following fall the new trenches will go where you planted the this year’s crops. And the next spring, you plant where your first trench was and so on. Compost Tea: This is a liquid organic fertilizer that you can make yourself. It will improve the overall health of your plants and the soil they are in. This practice has been used by farmers as a plant tonic for centuries. Recipe:
A tip for house plants: When you finish using your tea bag, instead of throwing it in the trash, put it on top of the soil of your house plants. Then every time you water, micronutrients from the tea will seep down into the soil of your potted plant. Eventually when you replace them, just put the tea into the compost pile (minus the tea bag). If you drink coffee, place the used grounds in a container and into your refrigerator where it will attract odors and keep your refrigerator smelling fresh. When you replace the grounds after a month or two, just add them to the top of the soil of your house plants (or add to your compost pile). COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next blog will be on the history of the lawn and how to gradually shrink its size by creating native wildlife gardens on your property. |
AuthorConsultant, designer and educator transforming commercial and residential landscapes sustainably Archives
March 2023
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