Thanks for this. I live in town and have went the way of leaving the leaf litter and not cutting down my plants in the fall. The Japanese beetles are awful in the early summer and my garden often is consumed by heaven knows what. I have planted native species but the invasive ones like the trumpet vine on the back fence are a constant battle. Our local soil and water conservation group always is recommending leaving the mowing until late May but sometimes that just isn’t possible.
I appreciate your take on this as a little understanding of conditions goes a long way.
Are you in Ohio? I'm pretty sure trumpet vine is native here, but it's incredibly aggressive, which just goes to show that under certain conditions native plants as well as exotics can pose problems. My take on avoiding mowing until May is that if you have a typical lawn of pure turfgrass it doesn't offer much in the way of ecosystem services even if you let it grow high. And if you have a diverse lawn with wildflowers and forbs it doesn't matter if you mow because the plants you've got are already adapted to mowing and will bloom and flourish at very low heights. Thanks for the comment and good luck with the trumpet vine!
I am in Ohio. I did not realize trumpet vine is native 🤦🏼♀️ the hummingbirds love it but boy is it aggressive. As far as my lawn I am sure the neighbors are horrified 😂 less grass and more wild violets and some severely spreading weed mixed with clover. The bees love it though and I mow it on the highest setting so it misses the clover and violets.
You surprised me with: "...average lot size in the U.S. fell from just under an acre in 1978, to about a third of an acre in 2020." I mean, wow! What an extravagant average this is. And what a big country this is! I would not have guessed it. My mom who lives in suburbia, on what I've always considered a spacious lot, has a fifth of an acre, and even that is a lot to manage, especially for an elderly person. Lots for homes in San Francisco are typically 25 feet wide. The depth of the lots vary with the topography but I assume it's the exceptional lot that goes back more than a hundred and fifty feet. Our house sits on a 25 x 75-foot lot which the internet tells me is about 4/10 of an acre. Our backyard is about 625 square feet large, or roughly 4/10 of an acre, and somehow it's a lot of work. To me, a third of an acre sounds like a huge deal. I don't think I know anybody around here with a place that big. A third of an acre would take some getting used to, that's for sure. I think I'd get an elephant.
Sounds like you're right in the city where lot sizes would be expected to be tiny. Lumping urban and suburban areas together doesn't make much sense if you're looking at lot size because there's a big difference, especially in wealthy suburban neighborhoods where lots are an acre or larger. That does sound big, but once you've got some mature trees and large shrubs they take up lots of room and produce shade which inhibits more growth. So I guess it comes down to what you do with your lot to either reduce work or not. Around here there are people with huge lots who have no large trees even though they have room to plant them at a safe distance from the house. The perception is that they make more work, but that's because they have the mindset of keeping their outdoor space as pristine and manicured as their indoor space. Some people plant larger trees near their homes then pay professionals to trim every year at great cost, to keep the trees small and perfectly shaped. It's quite bizarre. They could just locate them 50 ft farther out and never do anything. Problem solved.
Great piece Lynn Cady, lots of good detail and clear reasoning, as usual.
I'm sure you know that some permaculture designers and teachers liked to use lawns as an example of energy sinks where they soaked up lots of time and resources (fertilizers, moss killers, water etc.) for very little yield. Thinking about the lawns here in the UK, on the estate where I used to live in the 1960's, this was very true. Some of the lawns seemed to never get used for anything, indeed the "keeper", usually the man of the household, often forbade the family to walk on it! And then spend evenings after work and weekends pushing a lawnmower backwards and forwards to maintain an assumed ideal length of grass...On the tiny plots that went with the houses, the lawn at the front was the most visible bit and folk were judged on its pristine nature, or not. Odd to think this can still go on.
Apparently lawns were introduced into Britain via the Taj Mahal, where a small army of widows equipped with silver scissors, kept the grass mown. The British aristocrats who visited were so impressed with this extravagant display of wealth and power for no obvious yield that they adapted it into their mansion gardens- only the very rich could afford to have land that produced nothing! From there, in a sort of convoluted inverse snobbery, the "ordinary" folk of Britain came to adopt it in turn and enslaved themselves to its upkeep....mad stuff or what!
On another tack, the Cymric word Llan, present in many place names (like Llanelli, etc.) is often taken to mean church (it doesn't, eglwys is church) but it refers to the area of land on which churches were later built. Originally, usually circular, the llan has pagan origins. No use was allowed of this sacred land and often yews were allowed to grow there. Occasionally sheep would be let in to graze out other vegetation hence they took on a mown appearance. Llan is thus thought by some to be the root of the word lawn.
Sorry to go on! But finally, David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture design, taught here at our place in 1994 and was very clear that "everything is relative", hence lawns can be extremely valuable , productive places where all sorts of family activities can take place. Nor do they need to be energy expensive to maintain- if you haven't room for a sheep, rabbits or guinea pigs can do the job instead ;-)
I wasn't aware of that possible origin of the word lawn, or the connection of lawns with the Taj Mahal. Thanks for the history lesson! Unfortunately many lawns in my area are similar to the ones you recall from your home in the 60s, except on a much larger scale. Some homeowners have several acres they maintain as lawn. It's just ridiculous.
As someone who gardens in a small suburban lot this article made me feel very seen. My tiny outpost of native habitat feels constantly under assault from the Bradford pear seedlings dropped by my neighbors tree, as well as English ivy creeping under the other neighbors fence. Militancy is needed. I have to bike 15 minutes to find the next closest milkweed plant. My yard has the only standing deadwood within 10 minutes, and as a consequence the small gathering of leafcutter bees that live in holes drilled into that standing deadwood are likely the only population of them in my immediate area. It feels really really difficult. One of my neighbors called the police on me because I looked suspicious "wielding a hoe". Suburbia!
I laughed at your neighbor calling the police on you. It's not funny of course! But sometimes you have to laugh at how ridiculous people are. Congratulations on the leafcutter bees. That is something to be proud of. And yes, what you are doing is hard but so important. Keep up the good work!
Fascinating Lynn, thanks for the insights. No grass lawn here but a new microclover lawn which I don't feed, treat or cut. But my garden is surrounded by our organic farm so I'm continually tackling the arrivals that I don't want. It's the same in the fields, I want more grassland diversity but hogweed has other ideas while our wonderful centuries old hedgerows need management to keep the brambles from dominating all. They are wonderful plants for bringing in insects and birds but are so invasive. But there is one advantage in that they protect the oak seedlings from deer and after a few years they appear above the brambles and start to shade them out.
Hedgerows! If only we had them here. A century ago there were living fences made from the native osage orange tree, but they have been cut down or left to grow. I think there's some interest in microclover here but I've yet to see such a lawn so I don't know how well they do. Thank you for the comment!
Thanks for this. I live in town and have went the way of leaving the leaf litter and not cutting down my plants in the fall. The Japanese beetles are awful in the early summer and my garden often is consumed by heaven knows what. I have planted native species but the invasive ones like the trumpet vine on the back fence are a constant battle. Our local soil and water conservation group always is recommending leaving the mowing until late May but sometimes that just isn’t possible.
I appreciate your take on this as a little understanding of conditions goes a long way.
Are you in Ohio? I'm pretty sure trumpet vine is native here, but it's incredibly aggressive, which just goes to show that under certain conditions native plants as well as exotics can pose problems. My take on avoiding mowing until May is that if you have a typical lawn of pure turfgrass it doesn't offer much in the way of ecosystem services even if you let it grow high. And if you have a diverse lawn with wildflowers and forbs it doesn't matter if you mow because the plants you've got are already adapted to mowing and will bloom and flourish at very low heights. Thanks for the comment and good luck with the trumpet vine!
I am in Ohio. I did not realize trumpet vine is native 🤦🏼♀️ the hummingbirds love it but boy is it aggressive. As far as my lawn I am sure the neighbors are horrified 😂 less grass and more wild violets and some severely spreading weed mixed with clover. The bees love it though and I mow it on the highest setting so it misses the clover and violets.
You surprised me with: "...average lot size in the U.S. fell from just under an acre in 1978, to about a third of an acre in 2020." I mean, wow! What an extravagant average this is. And what a big country this is! I would not have guessed it. My mom who lives in suburbia, on what I've always considered a spacious lot, has a fifth of an acre, and even that is a lot to manage, especially for an elderly person. Lots for homes in San Francisco are typically 25 feet wide. The depth of the lots vary with the topography but I assume it's the exceptional lot that goes back more than a hundred and fifty feet. Our house sits on a 25 x 75-foot lot which the internet tells me is about 4/10 of an acre. Our backyard is about 625 square feet large, or roughly 4/10 of an acre, and somehow it's a lot of work. To me, a third of an acre sounds like a huge deal. I don't think I know anybody around here with a place that big. A third of an acre would take some getting used to, that's for sure. I think I'd get an elephant.
Wait. I screwed up. 625 sq ft is about 1/70 of an acre. Our yard is 1/70-acre and still it's a jungle.
Does it have bougainvillea?
Sounds like you're right in the city where lot sizes would be expected to be tiny. Lumping urban and suburban areas together doesn't make much sense if you're looking at lot size because there's a big difference, especially in wealthy suburban neighborhoods where lots are an acre or larger. That does sound big, but once you've got some mature trees and large shrubs they take up lots of room and produce shade which inhibits more growth. So I guess it comes down to what you do with your lot to either reduce work or not. Around here there are people with huge lots who have no large trees even though they have room to plant them at a safe distance from the house. The perception is that they make more work, but that's because they have the mindset of keeping their outdoor space as pristine and manicured as their indoor space. Some people plant larger trees near their homes then pay professionals to trim every year at great cost, to keep the trees small and perfectly shaped. It's quite bizarre. They could just locate them 50 ft farther out and never do anything. Problem solved.
Great piece Lynn Cady, lots of good detail and clear reasoning, as usual.
I'm sure you know that some permaculture designers and teachers liked to use lawns as an example of energy sinks where they soaked up lots of time and resources (fertilizers, moss killers, water etc.) for very little yield. Thinking about the lawns here in the UK, on the estate where I used to live in the 1960's, this was very true. Some of the lawns seemed to never get used for anything, indeed the "keeper", usually the man of the household, often forbade the family to walk on it! And then spend evenings after work and weekends pushing a lawnmower backwards and forwards to maintain an assumed ideal length of grass...On the tiny plots that went with the houses, the lawn at the front was the most visible bit and folk were judged on its pristine nature, or not. Odd to think this can still go on.
Apparently lawns were introduced into Britain via the Taj Mahal, where a small army of widows equipped with silver scissors, kept the grass mown. The British aristocrats who visited were so impressed with this extravagant display of wealth and power for no obvious yield that they adapted it into their mansion gardens- only the very rich could afford to have land that produced nothing! From there, in a sort of convoluted inverse snobbery, the "ordinary" folk of Britain came to adopt it in turn and enslaved themselves to its upkeep....mad stuff or what!
On another tack, the Cymric word Llan, present in many place names (like Llanelli, etc.) is often taken to mean church (it doesn't, eglwys is church) but it refers to the area of land on which churches were later built. Originally, usually circular, the llan has pagan origins. No use was allowed of this sacred land and often yews were allowed to grow there. Occasionally sheep would be let in to graze out other vegetation hence they took on a mown appearance. Llan is thus thought by some to be the root of the word lawn.
Sorry to go on! But finally, David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture design, taught here at our place in 1994 and was very clear that "everything is relative", hence lawns can be extremely valuable , productive places where all sorts of family activities can take place. Nor do they need to be energy expensive to maintain- if you haven't room for a sheep, rabbits or guinea pigs can do the job instead ;-)
I wasn't aware of that possible origin of the word lawn, or the connection of lawns with the Taj Mahal. Thanks for the history lesson! Unfortunately many lawns in my area are similar to the ones you recall from your home in the 60s, except on a much larger scale. Some homeowners have several acres they maintain as lawn. It's just ridiculous.
As someone who gardens in a small suburban lot this article made me feel very seen. My tiny outpost of native habitat feels constantly under assault from the Bradford pear seedlings dropped by my neighbors tree, as well as English ivy creeping under the other neighbors fence. Militancy is needed. I have to bike 15 minutes to find the next closest milkweed plant. My yard has the only standing deadwood within 10 minutes, and as a consequence the small gathering of leafcutter bees that live in holes drilled into that standing deadwood are likely the only population of them in my immediate area. It feels really really difficult. One of my neighbors called the police on me because I looked suspicious "wielding a hoe". Suburbia!
I laughed at your neighbor calling the police on you. It's not funny of course! But sometimes you have to laugh at how ridiculous people are. Congratulations on the leafcutter bees. That is something to be proud of. And yes, what you are doing is hard but so important. Keep up the good work!
Fascinating Lynn, thanks for the insights. No grass lawn here but a new microclover lawn which I don't feed, treat or cut. But my garden is surrounded by our organic farm so I'm continually tackling the arrivals that I don't want. It's the same in the fields, I want more grassland diversity but hogweed has other ideas while our wonderful centuries old hedgerows need management to keep the brambles from dominating all. They are wonderful plants for bringing in insects and birds but are so invasive. But there is one advantage in that they protect the oak seedlings from deer and after a few years they appear above the brambles and start to shade them out.
Hedgerows! If only we had them here. A century ago there were living fences made from the native osage orange tree, but they have been cut down or left to grow. I think there's some interest in microclover here but I've yet to see such a lawn so I don't know how well they do. Thank you for the comment!