The Tyranny of the Suburban Lawn

Few things in America signify waste more than the suburban lawn (although steakhouses come close.) They waste energy, time and the environment. And this is not to say lawns are bad. Lawns have a lot of great purposes--passive and active recreation, privacy.

But the pursuit of the perennially green lawn has prodded a couple of generations to douse the world in fertilizers that cause all kinds of problems, such as stimulating the growth of aquatic weeds that can choke a lake. Pesticides present their own problems in affecting benign insects and animals. Pesticides too have their place, but not in the amounts and frequency with which they are used. You could speak of a fertilizer-pesticide habit as one of the addictions.

There is of course the waste of water, also sometimes represented by sprinklers that go on in the middle of a rain, or go on at times when grass is as green as Ireland. The worst are those that go on in deserts environments and other sandy environments, such as those near oceans, where water simply runs through the soil. At the Jersey shore, there are always a number of houses that show a homeowner has admitted defeat and put in pebbles for lawn and some well chosen shrubs to provide greenery. It's actually an attractive model.

But for many lawns are a sign of a certain level wealth and leisure and perhaps the allure of the eternally green lawn is that homeowners can live out what I call "The Myth of the Suburban Squire." Either a property owner has the time to care for the lawn or the money to hire someone to do it if the owner is too busy.

In the 1800s, farm homes didn't have lawns. They often had orchards that offered some open space around houses. But on small farms, space was another resource that couldn't be wasted.
This is not to suggest tearing up sod and turning us into a nation of small fruit growers. But it underscores how the concept of space is as entwined in conservation or resources as the discussion of water.

Perhaps the economy will introduce some attitude change. Water, fertilizer and pesticide must be purchased and perhaps in a nation of millions of foreclosed homes, we'll get to a more sensible policy the hard way.

And maybe we'll just learn to live with a little less green.