Spring is here (Yes, I know it’s cold this morning), and the lawn companies are out in force telling us how to have a greener, nicer law, like those fancy British ones on the PBS specials. But those companies spread tons and tons and tons of pesticides to give us the great green lawn that we don’t need. And the runoff from the pesticides have unintended consequences, like polluting groundwater.
We Americans use 3 trillion gallons of water a year to keep those lawns green. Below the grass is the soil, full of beneficial bacteria and fungi which need to be nourished, not killed with fungicides and synthetic fertilizers. If you must have that green lawn, at least use an organic fertilizer that won’t destroy what’s beneath the grass.
Little by little, I have been shrinking my lawn year by year. Partly I do it by enlarging the flower garden with a combination of ground cover, spring bulbs, and perennials. Partly, by widening the brick borders of the garden, and partly by leaving corners of the yard in their natural state. Yes, I have a lawn mower but my goal is to not have to use it.
Prayer for the Day
Burrowing in the leaf piles and quiet corners are your creatures, O God,
Finding material for nests and places to hide from the hawks;
Flitting about the bushes and hedges are your small birds, O Lord,
Looking for seed and suet to get them on unexpected cold mornings.
Help us to give the gift of your earth the care it needs,
And grant that we may share our bounty with your creatures.
In the name of him who walked among the lilies of the field,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Lawn, ecologically, is dead space.
- Doug Tallamy, entomologist, University of Delaware
If you have a lawn under a mature tree, convert it to a mulched area. Six inches of raw wood chips should do it.
- Cathy Connolly, Connecticut landscape architect
And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail
Isaiah 58: 11