Lawns: Celebrate Diversity!
Springtime… is there a more hopeful or promising time of year? Birds chirping, buds popping, people gardening, the smell of freshly cut grass, the lush landscape after a spring rain. Driving around town, music playing, sun shining, it seems like nothing can get me down…. Until I notice those little yellow signs dotting lawn after lawn.. and I remember, spirits sinking, that the lawn treatments have begun.
This is a topic that is near and dear to me, not only as someone who cares about wildlife and the environment, but also as a gardener working in many different yards, some of which are chemically treated. A manicured, green lawn without a “weed” in sight generally hasn’t gotten that way naturally (although it can – I know a few people who still dig up their dandelions by hand and fertilize with organic material).
It really bothers me to see a robin searching for food for its young, on a lawn recently treated with pesticide. First of all, 60-90% of earthworms are killed where pesticides are used, according to the U.S. National Wildlife Federation. The worms that do remain are riddled with chemical, now transferred to the robin and her young.
Another major consequence to the decline in worm population from chemical usage is the soil’s health. By now, we know that healthy soil is literally the foundation for thick and healthy lawns and vigorous plants in the garden beds. In her book, Great Garden Companions, Sally Cunningham explains why these creatures deserve more credit. “In the cast of characters in garden soil, earthworms are the stars. They are like miniature tillers that turn the soil and aerate it – and even better, they work for free!” She points out that Earthworm castings are 5x richer in nutrients than standard soil, and the magic of it is, that these nutrients are already in the perfect form that plants can use. Can you believe that some worms bring up minerals from as far as 8 FEET below the soil surface? They are truly amazing creatures! We can help them do their job by topdressing our lawns and gardens with a layer of organic matter such as compost or mulched leaves, which they will work into the existing soil for us.
A sea of blue forget-me-nots, South Wales, NY.
I don't care for Violets in my garden, since they just take over and work themselves into the middle of all the perennials,, but I love them in the lawn! They don't bother anyone there.
Soil health depends on a vast array of microbial life, as well as insects, spiders, centipedes, snails, worms, mites, etc. In a balanced ecosystem, there are pests for the predators to eat. Mother Nature had it handled all along! Plants, animals, insects and microbes work together to balance and support each other. As soon as we introduce heavy duty herbicides and pesticides, we disrupt the natural system. Several people have mentioned to me that after years of treating their lawns with a lawn ‘care’ company, they decided to go natural and cancel their treatments. I was ecstatic! Turns out they were absolutely inundated with horrible gnat-like insects that first season, most likely because the ecosystem had been disrupted for so long that everything was off-balance and out-of-whack, and there were just not enough predators to handle the pests that were hatching. This is why we should go natural from the start!
According to the EPA, 40-60% of the nitrogen people put onto their lawns winds up in surface or groundwater. Not good! Fertilizer runoff – specifically nitrogen and phosphate – is becoming a huge problem for many bodies of water as more and more people are treating their lawns with synthetic fast-release fertilizers. The NY Dept of Environmental Conservation is concerned that excess nutrients found in water can lead to a process called “eutrophication,” where algae blooms fed by nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients change the chemistry of water bodies, choke off sunlight (potentially killing off plants below the surface) and foster the growth of harmful cyanobacteria. (Washington Post)
Purple Ajuga looking more like a field of lupines across this chemical-free front yard in Eden, NY.
What is the alternative to the highly-fertilized, chemical-laden, perfectly-manicured green lawn? A beautiful, colorful, textural medley of foliage, flowers and mosses! A happy place for pollinators. A yard where you can feel totally safe walking barefoot in the summertime. Don’t worry so much about what your neighbor’s think – who knows, maybe you’ll inspire them to allow a few wildflowers to pop up in their own lawns! I’ve seen so many gorgeous ‘painterly’ front lawns this Spring that I decided to write this article and share with you some photos.
Wild strawberries will provide plenty of fruit for the lucky one who gets there first!
Spring Bulbs like Siberian Squill will only thrive in an all-natural area, specifically in a thin lawn like under these Sugar Maples.
Cut-leaf Toothwort, a native wildflower, has pretty flowers but I love the foliage even more.
Let’s have compassion and respect for life in all forms, not just our kids and our pets, but the invaluable wildlife living in our backyards. Ecologist and native plant expert Doug Tallamy asks the question, “What good is biodiversity?” He explains that we need biodiversity because it literally sustains us… It is essential to the stability – the very existence – of most ecosystems.
Tallamy states that “A land without insects is a land without most forms of higher life… Biodiversity is a national treasure that we have abused terribly, partly because we have not understood the consequences of doing so. Our understanding of such consequences is far from perfect, but we now know enough to behave responsibly toward the plants and animals on which we ourselves depend. We must manage our biodiversity just as we manage our water resources, our clean air, and our energy. Fortunately, unlike most of our water or energy supplies, biodiversity is a renewable resource that is relatively easy to increase, as long as we do so before its components, the species themselves, become extinct.”
Painterly meadow in Orchard Park, NY.
One example of a species in trouble that you have hopefully heard about by now, is the disappearance of the honeybees. Thanks in big part to the rampant use of powerful pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, by big Agriculture here in the U.S., the honeybee population is declining at an alarming rate. Steve Ellis, of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and owner of Old Mill Honey Company (they make great beeswax candles!) states that last year, American beekeepers lost 42% of their bee colonies. Without these important creatures to pollinate our crops, we wouldn’t have many of the foods we depend on and enjoy today.
Sadly, America is again late to the party, most likely because the EPA can’t stand up to major chemical producers such as Monsanto, who spend millions each year on lobbying efforts to make sure they keep the money rolling in, selling more and more pesticide and herbicide. The European Union and Canada have already banned neonicotinoids in their agriculture. To illustrate the problem to Americans, one Whole Foods store actually emptied its shelves of all the products that depend on bee pollination. This included apples, onions, carrots, watermelon, lemons, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, among many others. The store lost half of its products.
It’s more than just a pretty lawn. For every action, there is a reaction. Let’s make it a positive one! Let’s choose to support the good guys (birds & bugs) instead of the chemical companies, who are doing us no favors. It’s our responsibility to take care of this planet and its inhabitants.
Because “good planets are hard to find.” -Steve Folbert
Like a dream... blue forget-me-nots cover a front lawn near my home in West Falls, NY.
Daisies looking like fairy dust at Gunther's Hill in Hamburg, NY.
I hope that this post inspires you to look at your lawn with new eyes and start to see the beauty, color, texture, and ecological benefit to a lawn with some “weeds” in it.